Below
is the complete Forgotten Realms FAQ of the REALMS-L Mailing List. The
text below contains many in-depth questions and answers on the Forgotten Realms
setting but mainly focuses on issues of the REALMS-L Mailing List, its functions
and standards of use. This FAQ is maintained by Tom Cullen and not by Candlekeep
who are one of a few hosts of the FAQ on the Net.

It's quite long (9 parts), and includes things such as questions about Stoneskin,
Alignment, music to game by, and lots, lots more. I'd recommend perusing it
if you've got any general questions...you might find an answer (or three!) in
it.

*1.1 I
keep seeing a reference to "FRA". What is it, what's in it, and why
can't I find it anywhere?

FRA stands for "Forgotten Realms Adventures", a hardback compendium
of Realmslore that updated many rules for AD&D Second Edition. (There were
also volumes called "Greyhawk Adventures" and "Dragonlance Adventures",
those being the three main game worlds at the time.) FRA sold out quickly and
is devilishly hard to find these days at anything approximating a reasonable
price. (So, if you DO see one, grab it!)

Luckily for us gamers, most of the information in FRA has been reprinted or
supplanted by later products. The main sections of FRA were:

“The Forgotten Realms, Post-Avatar" -- provided conversions from first
ed. to second ed.; now mostly irrelevant

"Magic and Mages in the Realms" -- some useful tidbits that haven't
seen print elsewhere, but the vast majority of this information has been reprinted
in "Pages From the Mages" and/or "Volo's Guide to All Things
Magical" (with a few unique spells slipping into "The Seven Sisters")

"Cities of the Heartlands" -- the only major section NOT to be
wholly reprinted, although some specific cities have been updated elsewhere

"Secret Societies of the Realms" -- the Harpers and the Cult of
the Dragon have their own sourcebooks ("Code of the Harpers" (OOP)
and "Cult of the Dragon"); the Zhentarim got a boxed set ("Ruins
of Zhentil Keep"), and the Red Wizards got part of a boxed set ("Spellbound").
"Cloak and Dagger contains the latest updates of all of this information.

"Treasure" -- available for free download from the TSR web site

"Treasure Tables" -- pretty much copies of the ones from the DMG

"Wizard Spells by School/Level" -- the "Wizard's Spell Compendium"
series has such lists in the final volume

"Random Spell Lists" -- the "Wizard's Spell Compendium"
series has such tables in the final volume (they aren't quite as useful, but
they are all we're likely to get)

Of course, most of this has also been revised in the 3rd edition
Forgotten Realms Hardcover.

2. Deities
and Related Matters

*2.1. What
are the best sources for information on Realms deities?

All of your questions are answered in the three-volume series, "Faiths
& Avatars", "Powers & Pantheons", and "Demihuman
Deities". While these are second edition books, much of the information
is general and can be applied to a third edition game as well.

F&A details the major deities worshipped in most of the lands of the Realms,
and P&P gives the demipowers, as well as some more obscure pantheons. DD
details the elven, drow, dwarven, halfling, and gnomish pantheons.

*2.2. Who are the major deities and
what do you call their followers?

The following is a list of the human greater, intermediate and lesser powers
(from F&A); it includes adjectives used to refer to the religions and titles
of worshipers (thanks to Steve Allen). Note that some of these do not adhere
to the recent Wizards effort to eliminate irregular plurals.

2.3.1. I keep seeing references to
"Chosen" of various deities. What do you mean by "Chosen"?

Some deities, most notably Mystra, have given one or a small group of their
dedicated followers special powers; these are called Chosen. The Chosen of Mystra
are most well known, and derive some special benefits because they actually
hold a portion of Mystra's essence within them. They are Elminster, Khelben,
the Seven Sisters, and perhaps others yet unrevealed. (Azuth may or may not
currently be a Chosen, although it's virtually certain he was before he became
a god. The founder of the Cult of the Dragon, Sammaster, was a Chosen who went
bad.) Mystra's Magister is NOT a chosen (at least not while holding the office
of Magister). Noumea Drathchuld, a recent Magister, is now a chosen, as is Alvaerele
Tasundrym, a Magister who held the office from 576-592 DR).

Other known Chosen: Cadderly, Chosen of Deneir (from the Cleric Quintet by
R. A. Salvatore); Qilue Veladorn, Chosen of Eilistraee (as well as Mystra...it's
a complicated story); Jeryth Phaulkon, the Chosen Star of Mielikki. We should
also take care not to forget Fzoul Chembryl, chosen of Xvim.

The Elder Circle of the Emerald Enclave are also chosen - the Chosen of Silvanus.
The names of the three chosen are:

Shinthala Deepcrest
Lady Shadowmoon
Ashenford Torinbow

Source: The Vilhon Reach - Dungeon Master's Reference pp 27-31

*2.3.2. What special powers do Mystra's
chosen have?

The powers granted to Mystra's chosen in third edition are given in the Forgotten
Realms Hardcover.

The standard granted powers of the Chosen of Mystra in second edition are (from
pp. 10-11 Seven Sisters):

1. Effective constitution 25 (system shock rolls + regeneration)
2. Immunity to disease & afflictions (as per elixir of health)
3. Death from natural causes impossible
4. Immunity to disintegration magic
5. +5 saving throws vs. spells
6. +3 save vs. dragon breath
7. Detect magic at will with a range of 90 ft, or w/n their line-of-sight (whichever
is greater)
8. Hear own names spoken anywhere on Toril (& next 9 words spoken by that
person)
9. Lose all need for sleep
10. Function without food & water for up to seven days at a time (as per
potion of vitality)
11. Have one of the following effects active at any given time as per the item:
ring of warmth, ring of mind shielding, potion of water breathing, protection
from gas scroll
12. Immune to one specific spell of each level (own chioice)
13. One bonus spell at each level the Chosen can cast that can be cast by act
of will alone and re-appears in the Chosen's memory 24 hours later
14. Unleash the silver fire (beam 5ft wide, up to 70ft long; pierces *all* barriers;
4d12 dmg, no save)
15. Cloud of silver fire (cone 5ft wide at base, up to 70ft long, up to 70ft
wide at end) - banishes dead magic areas.
16. Banish all external magical or psionic compulsions with silver fire.
17. Teleport w/t error 1/day to last location where they used silver fire.

Note: some of the Chosen have additional personal granted powers from Mystra
that vary with each individual and reference is made that the Chosen may well
have additional powers that even they are unaware of (p. 12, Seven Sisters)

Lorm Emm cautioned:

It should be noted however that this only goes for Chosen of Mystra... Chosen
of other deities should have quite different abilities.

*2.3.3. Why do other powers choose
to not have a 'Chosen' since it is evident that any power can appoint a mortal
as a 'Chosen'?

Paul Hoyak answered:

Oh, easy answers here.

The second answer is just as easy. Most powers do not make Chosen simply because
it is both a waste of power and sometimes even a waste of time (notably for
evil deities and their evil followers). Why make a Chosen (which requires the
individual to be imbued with the god's essence AS WELL as the fact that they
are not controlled by the deity) when you can make seraph and proxies?

Here's how it works (evidence from a variety of sources, including Code of
the Harpers, Seven Sisters, FRE1 Shadowdale, Shadow of the Avatar trilogy, Planescape
box set, On Hallowed Ground, Crucible, Dragon Magazine)

Chosen: most powerful of the three. Requires some of the god's essence. Not
controlled by the deity.

Seraph: powerful proxies. Created as a proxy. Has a fair amount of free will.

Proxy: standard deity servant. Does not require any of the god's essence.
Can be tightly "reined in" by the deity at any time.

A deity would normally have a VERY good reason to create a Chosen over a proxy.
Mystra is a notably example (read Code of the Harpers, Seven Sisters, and FRE1
Shadowdale for insight).

*2.4.OK,
who or what is the Magister? I'm hopelessly confused.

I don't blame you. "The Magister" (product code FR4) was an early
Realms sourcebook, which gave many new spells and magic items found in the Realms.
It's at least as hard to find as FRA, so snap up any copies you see. FR4 is
available as a pay download from the WotC Online Store ESD site.

The Magister, the person, is a mage selected by Mystra to spread the Art (magic)
throughout the Realms. A mage may become the Magister by defeating the current
Magister in spell combat; this combat need not (but may) be to the death. The
Magister is supposed to be a shadowy, secretive figure.

The sourcebook "Secrets of the Magister" details the powers and history
of the position (including info on many past Magisters). The current Magister
(as of 1370 DR) is Talatha Vaerovree of Innarlith, a female human 16th
level wizard.

The following is a mostly accurate discussion of the magister by Bobby Nichols
<catdrag@vnet.net> and by Mike Mateer <mateer@midwest.net>. This
discussion occurred before the publishing of "Secrets of the Magister",
and gross errors in speculation have been edited out.

"The Magister is a high-level (usually) mage whom Mystra elevates to show
the glory of magic. In other words, the magister is a punching bag for high-level
wizards who want to show how good they are. This keeps all those glory-minded
mages from ruling/conquering countries and the like. The Magister is a series
of people. You see, the reward for beating the Magister is usually (if you survive)
becoming the Magister. If neither combatant survives, then Azuth chooses the
next Magister. I would guess that what the duel is, depends on the mage who
is currently the Magister. I mean, would you want to be known as the archmage
who was once the Magister? Also, at high level there are lots of spells for
magical combat: anti-magic shell, prismatic spells, etc. etc. Generally I would
say that most combats go until the death - either by accident or design. [Editor's
note: this is confirmed in SotM- good reasoning, Bobby!) As for duties, the
Magister is what mages show their apprentices and say: "This is what you'll
be one day-if you study hard enough." I would say that the magister has
a glamorous job but no real duties or income. [Editor's note: not quite true;
the magister is charged with promoting the spread and advancement of magic,
though some shirked this duty horribly).

Some mentions of Magisters in other products:

1. Jhesiyra Kestellharp. One of Halaster's apprentices, she gave up after
Halaster's Test, and went to Myth Drannor and eventually became the Magister...
(Campaign Guide to Undermountain, page 5)

2. The Magister that appears in the novel Elminster, the Making of a Mage
(pages 84-89), who answers a challenge to his powers and destroys a bunch of
powerful magelords.

3. A recent Magister, Noumea (referenced in FR4 The Magister and appears
in the novel Cloak of Shadows).

4. Two Magisters are referenced in Polyhedron #72 (page 29): Inhil Lauthdryn
"Hurler-of-Stars", who went alone into the Vast in search of a rogue
Archmage in order to bring him to justice, and Aralagath Tarsil who succeeded
him.

5. A Magister spoke directly with Mystra in a knoll in Shadowdale that nowadays
is a holy place (Shandril's mother, Dammasae is buried there; she was an Incantatrix
and also had Spellfire). See the 3E Campaign Setting for 3E spellfire rules.
For 2E info, see the novel Spellfire, pages 356-357, and Poly #117 or Cult of
the Dragon for Incantatrix courtesy of Eric Boyd." Also see Dragon #90
(which contains Ed Greenwood's original Incantrix article).

2.5. What’s
the deal with the different pantheons? Can my character in the dales worship a
god from Chult?

Eric Boyd explains:

Think of it this way.

Ao allows gods to extend their influence where they are worshiped by a large
segment of the population.

In the "old days", when the various races and peoples were geographically
isolated, the pantheons appear to be geographically divided. If, however, the
entire population of Mulhorand had woken up one day and decided to walk to Calimshan,
then the Mulhorandi's 'geographic sphere of influence' would have moved with
them.

Given the "interconnectedness" of the Realms today, it's no suprise
that the old pantheon system (Netherese, Uthgardt, Calishite, Jhaamdaathan,
Untheric, Chultan, Mulhorandi, etc.) is breaking down. In fact, the existence
of a geographically distinct pantheon is indicative that there is very little
cross-border flow between that region and the rest of the Realms.

2.6.Is
Tiamat in the Realms the same as Takhisis in Dragonlance?

According to published materials for both settings (as well as Planescape),
the best answer is "yes and no". Most DMs seem to think that they
are separate but strangely similar deities; however, quite a few people play
them as the same power in different aspects.

(The above answer also applies to Bahamut and Paladine.)

2.7. Whom
is Ao talking to at the end of "Waterdeep"?

There are all kinds of theories, but the one that seems to make the most sense
is that he was talking to the Supreme God, the DM. In other words, the reader.

2.8. Where
can I get more information about the Dawn Cataclysm?

Nowhere, at present. It's one of the abiding mysteries of the Realms. Sorry
we can't be more help with this one. :-)

[Steven Schend, in a post to Realms-L, said that to his knowledge, there are
no plans to expand on the Dawn Cataclysm in any further Realms products.]

Many list members have speculated, though.

Simon Gibbs does a good job of summarizing what’s known:

A quick note on the date of the Dawn Cataclysm: it's a perennial thorn for
those interested in Realms Timelines. Perhaps the most definitive stuff I have
seen on this topic came from Steven Schend in response to a request for a timeline
of the Dawn Cataclysm, including the birth dates and locations of Bane, Bhaal,
and Myrkul, and related material.

To soothe the debate, Steve Schend wrote: <quote>

Not to disappoint, but this will probably never happen, simply because it's
irrelevant to mortal Realms history. The Dawn Cataclysm occurs only among the
gods and has no impact whatsoever on the mortal plane of the Realms save one:
A schism forms in the faith of Tyche and the church splits into the faiths of
Beshaba and Tymora. This happens somewhere between the height of the Netheril
Empire and the beginning of Dalereckoning.

I'm not narrowing it down further than that right now, and frankly, I've no
desire to do so, as it should be a vague time at best. As for the births of
Bane/Bhaal/Myrkul, I've even less interest in dredging those topics up; suffice
it to say that they may have existed long ago as mortals and at some point in
the dim and misty past they became the gods they were.

They all died or/and lost their divinity in the Time of Troubles, and no matter
how many schemes may be hatched to try and bring them back to godhood, they
will forever canonically remain dead issues.

</end quote>

[Note well that Steven prefaces this posting (which included much stuff on
future products on Netheril) with: "I'll start out with a disclaimer that
states that none of these ideas discussed are officially part of any product
idea or schedule at this point. It's more of a peek inside my head as to opinions,
musings, and some of the stories and lore I'd like to layer onto Netheril. These
may become products, plot hooks or ideas in other products, magazine articles,
or even short stories at some point. Who knows? They're just ideas & pinions
as of right now...."]

As a final comment, to quote Tom Costa of the list: "The date is uncertain
and TSR has said they will not date godly FR events that took place out of mortal
eyes, _which I think is fine_." Good words to heed, perhaps.

Paul Hoyak added:

For those with some interest in the Dawn Cataclysm (though I am not one of
them) there WAS an official date(s) given for the Dawn Cataclysm; however, since
it was found on the Forgotten Realms Conspectus (this is the first published
mention of the Dawn Cataclysm) the date is definitely questionable: c. 161
DR: The Dawn Cataclysm.

Jason Hatter rebutted:

Something for the Dawn Cataclysm portion: it definitely happened before 134DR,
since at that time Azuth was no longer Magister, and he either was a Magister
at the time of the DC, or became one after it....either of which is before the
date mentioned in SotM....

2.8.1.What
gods existed at the time of the Dawn Cataclysm?

Answer: We don’t know for sure:

Tavis King compiled a partial list:

Amaunator, Jannath, Jergal, Kozah, Moander, Mystryl(Mystra), Selune, Shar,
Targus, and Tyche are listed in the Netheril Boxed set. Lathander must also
have existed if he started the cataclysm.

2.9. On page 37 of F&A there is a mention of the '...Seven
Lost Gods...' Does anyone know who they were/are?

George Krashos and Eric Boyd have both opined on the matter:

George:

The matter of the Seven Lost Gods has always been one of Eric's pet FR conundrums,
and without pre-empting his inevitable contribution to this thread, I believe
the Seven Lost Gods should include the following:

1. Jergal
2. Garagos
3. Moander
4. Shaundakul
5. Ghaunadar

Note that this leaves two slots free, and I have some idea as to which gods
I'd put in, but the fact is that there is no 'canon' answer to this question.
Put in any "old" gods you like - heck, make up some gods that have
been slain or have died due to loss of worship/neglect. Also in Off-List discussion,
the tie between Westgate and the Seven Lost Gods has been discussed. We know
little of the history of Westgate and we don't even know who or what first colonised
the area. Suggestions in regard to the nation that first founded Westgate have
centered mostly on Jhaamdath (sp?) - the nation first discussed in LOI and EotSS.
What gods did the nation of Jhaamdath worship? It seems that FR conundrums never
go away.... :)

Eric:

First a bit of background:

The novel "Azure Bonds" revealed that there were seven hills with
rings of stone plinths south and west of Westgate. One of these hills, the Hill
of Fangs, was firmly associated with Moander.

In an off-hand reference in one of Ed's novels, there is a reference to the
"Seven Lost Gods." I can no longer find this reference, but I know
its out there somewhere. (If you find this reference, please let me know the
source and page number.)

When I was working on the Major Centers of Worship write-up in Moander's write-up
in F&A, I linked the two, and now the "Seven Lost Gods" are firmly
tied to the seven hills outside of Westgate.

In "Ruins of Myth Drannor", just before the discussion of Shaundakul,
there is a discussion of "old" gods whose worship is faded. This discussion
mentions that the cult of Garagos was once strong in Westgate and that Savras
was once venerated as the god of worshipers in the South.

In "Prayers from the Faithful," we learn that Silvanus was once venerated
in a vanished woodland south and west of the city of Westgate.

I recently learned about five heretofore-unknown names of gods who "bowed
down before Bane." This is mentioned in the book that accompanied the old
"Pools of Radiance" computer game.

So, who are the Seven Lost Gods?

Only Moander is an absolute given, as noted above.

Garagos, and to a lesser extent, Savras, seem like likely candidates given
their geographic centers of interest.

Given that "Lost" seems to imply "gods whose worship has declined
significantly and who may or may not be dead", I might add the following
deities to the list:

Jergal and Ghaunadaur. (Jergal, while not dead, has certainly vanished from
the perspective of most humans of Faerun. Ghaunadaur seems like a good candidate
because he attracts only a few cultists, and he's dark, sinister, and evil.)

Other possibilities include Silvanus (because of that PftF reference) and Shaundakul
(although the latter's base was farther north, around Myth Drannor.)

The five names from the computer game "Pool of Radiance" are interesting
candidates as well. One theory I'm considering is that the "current"
Seven Lost Gods were venerated outside of Westgate several centuries ago. However,
their temples were built atop the ruins of an earlier civilization, and that
realm's temples were dedicated to seven truly lost and forgotten deities. Maybe
the five names mentioned in "Pool of Radiance" were of that civilization,
and their "bowing down to Bane" occurred when the Father of Xvim was
in his ascendance long, long ago.

Alfred Hailey added:

It's not a given that the five names mentioned in "Pool of Radiance"
were actually gods - Tyranthraxus was a special daemon who appeared in two adventures.
Properly though, they were:

Maram of the Great Spear
Haask, Voice of Hargut
Tyranthraxus the Flamed One
Borem of the Lake of Boiling Mud
Camnod the Unseen

2.10. Can humans worship demihuman
gods? What about the reverse?

Eric Boyd clarified:

Demihumans can and do worship human gods. Such practices have been depicted
time and time again in Forgotten Realms products, particularly the novels.

My personal impression is that this is caused out-of-game in large part because
the two boxed sets, Forgotten Realms Adventures, and all the Time of Troubles
products promoted the human gods at the expense of the

demihuman gods. Perhaps some of the authors mistakenly thought the Realms were
akin to Dragonlance, i.e. one pantheon for all races?

In any event, it is my opinion (and nothing more than that), that while demihumans
of the Realms on occasion do choose to venerate human gods, it is far, far less
common than commonly depicted in FR products, with a few notable exceptions.
Those exceptions are primarily cases where a "human" god is in fact
a major part of a demihuman pantheon as well. Examples of such are limited to
Gond (gnomes), Mielikki (elves), and Tymora (halflings) if I recall correctly.

2.11. Does AO also take power over
all the other deities in FR besides the human ones in the normal pantheon?

Eric Boyd:

Yes, but ONLY with regards to their connection with Realmspace. Think of him
like a local traffic cop. He doesn't care what those out-of-towners do elsewhere,
except when they're in his jurisdiction. When they are in his jurisdiction,
he's got absolute authority, but exercises it only when absolutely necessary.

*2.12. During the ToT was it only
human gods who were cast down, or were demihuman gods similarly affected?

All of the gods descended. In the FR Comics, Clangeddin Silverbeard and Labelas
Enoreth are cast down, and Labelas defeats Clangeddin's avatar.

Tom Rinschler has compiled the following list of human and non-human powers
whose locations during the TOT are known:

(as most demihuman avatars' locations haven't been revealed, having been
mostly ignored in the core ToT products, only those with known locations are
listed. There is plenty of room for speculation here)

(While the demihuman powers have been only lightly covered, the dozens of
monstrous deities have been truly passed over. While in some cases this is
understandable, surely the draconic and giant avatars should have been VERY
noticeable! There's even more room for speculation than with the demihumans)

Notes:

1. The elemental powers (Akadi, Grumbar, Ishtishia, and Kossuth) weren't seen
in the Realms according to F&A. In the first three cases, it may just be
that they weren't noticed, being basically invisible in their elements (an avatar
made of water would be unnoticeable in a large ocean after all). Unfortunately,
Kossuth messes this theory up, as a huge flame would be rather noticeable.

2. Four powers had locations listed in the current list on the "Best"
web page that are incorrect. Auril's avatar isn't mentioned in FR14, Ilmater
is mentioned on page 23 of FR9, but only as one of the gods revered in Damara,
not as an avatar, and neither Leira's or Loviatar's locations are mentioned
in FRA. I think I checked pretty thoroughly, but if anyone does discover if
these are correct references, don't hesitate to mention it.

Note 3: Although Finder's and Moander's locations during the Time of Troubles
have never been specifically revealed, much information can be gleaned from
Song of the Saurials, which takes place immediately after the ToT. The Godswar
ended on 15 Marpenoth 1359 DR, and Song of Saurials takes place during 18 -
21 Marpenoth (the date of Finder's destruction of Moander is given in P&P
as 20 Marpenoth) - presumably the start of Finder's trial had been delayed due
to the chaos of the ToT and was begun as soon as possible after its end. From
the novel, it is obvious that Finder had been imprisoned in the Twisted Tower
for quite some time, presumably including the entire ToT. Although it is never
specifically stated in the novel that Moander's avatar had been in the Lost
Vale, it certainly would be the logical conclusion. However, the fact that
the saurials were being forced to create huge pile of rotting vegetation to
be the avatar's host makes it appear that Moander's avatar during the ToT must
have been quite weak; a result, presumably, of the disastrous events in Azure
Bonds.

2.13 .What happens if an other-spheric
priest comes over to the Realms, bringing his worship of god with him?

From F&A:

It depends. :)

If the priest's god's portfolios are similar to those held by a member of the
pantheon of the land in which the priest finds himself, one of three things
happens.

1. The priest converts to worship of the native deity.
2. The native deity grants the priest's spells and wins him over gradually.
3. The priest loses power.
4. The priest's deity arrives to contest the portfolio.

2.14. Who are the five patron goddesses
of Silverymoon? Oghma is male, but isn't he one of them?

Steven Schend answers:

While it's true that Oghma has a big temple in the city, he's not one of the
principal powers that have nurtured this tiny town and nation from its start.

Here are the few references I've hidden into Cormanthyr and The North and other
products re: the Five Goddesses of Silverymoon. Thought I'd answered this question
only a few months ago, but couldn't find my answer in my files.... Here's the
hard-sought info.

627 --Year of the Bloodcrystals

Ecamane Truesilver and his nine apprentices arrive in Silverymoon. Claiming
five goddesses (Eldath, Mielikki, Lurue, Mystra, and Sehanine) drew them here,
the mages create a school of magic patterned on elven teachings.

In short: Eldath, Mielikki, Lurue, Mystra, and Sehanine are the 5 goddesses
of Silverymoon/Luruar. Strangely enough, the latter two have always taken an
active interest in the doings and life of a certain archmage currently of Waterdeep
as well.... Food for thought...... ;)

2.15. Is there a Grand Druid in the
Realms?

Rian McMurtry opined:

Each faith having druids theoretically has its own druidic hierarchy, so there
would be grand druids of Silvanus, Eldath, Chauntea, and Earthmother (though
an aspect of Chauntea, the Earthmother religion seems to qualify as a seperate
faith to me), as well (theoretically) as a grand druid of Mielikki (considering
that druids were only recently reintroduced to Mielikki's faith, I doubt she
has one yet).

*2.16. What happened to specialty
priests in third edition?

Specialty priests as such don't exist at low levels in 3rd ed. Instead, the
"common" cleric gets a certain amount of inherent customization (through
the domains), and there's always multiclassing for other abilities (a cleric
of Tempus would probably be expected to have some Fighter levels, and one of
Azuth should know some Wizardry). Some abilities could be taken as feats as
well.

True specialty priests can exist at higher levels through the use of prestige
classes.

Some settings have been set in the Realms, but otherwise have only the most
tenuous of connections. Others were meant as limited-release lines and were
meant to flesh out the line. Here's the most current list of what Realms product
lines there are (or were):

o Forgotten Realms

o Kara-Tur (Oriental Adventures, currently defunct): Kara-Tur is at the other
end of the continent from Faerun, which is what we usually think of as "the
Realms". It's a fairly homogeneous blend of Japanese, Chinese, and other
East Asian societies.

o Al-Qadim (Arabian Adventures, a limited-release line): Zakhara, the Land
of Fate, is a southern subcontinent with a generic Arabian feel (lots of genies,
sand, and camels). It was meant as a two-year product line, but was extended
for a third year by gamer request. Recently, TSR published a new Al-Qadim
adventure, "Reunion", previously available only through the RPGA.

o The Hordelands: These lands lie between Faerun and Kara-Tur, and present
a pretty standard barbarian culture. Apart from one boxed set, a trilogy
of novels, FR12, and a trilogy of modules, nothing has been released for the
Hordelands.

o Maztica: For everyone who's ever wanted to play a "colonize the New
World" game, complete with strange feathered serpents, gold, and human
sacrifice. Like the Horde, there was only one boxed set, one trilogy of modules,
and one trilogy of novels released.

o Arcane Age (including Cormanthyr and Netheril): This line has been discontinued.

3.2. What
and where is Anchorome?

In Ed Greenwood's original conception, Anchorome was a joke archipelago; each
island was a dungeon, and at the bottom of the dungeon were just enough supplies
and a map to the next one. With the release of the Maztica mini-setting, Anchorome
became the northern end of the new continent. It has not been detailed in any
fashion apart from a couple of brief mentions here and there.

[BTW, it's pronounced AN-chor-oh-MAY.]

3.3. I thought the Realms were on the same planet as Greyhawk; does that mean
Maztica is really part of Greyhawk? (Also known as "I heard it on the net
so it must be true.")

It's not true.

For one thing, Spelljammer products clearly indicate that FR and GH are in
different crystal spheres. For another, neither the FR team nor the GH team
had ever indicated so (although, to be fair, we should admit that at one time,
a joke article appeared on the TSR web page claiming it was true).

But, if it makes you happy, run with it.

3.4. Where
can I put [Insert generic module here] in the Realms?

These questions are often posed to the list and get many replies. The best
tends to be "wherever you want".

Eric Boyd posted some ideas on how to incorporate the Greyhawk "super-modules"
to the list a few years ago:

3.4.1. How to place T1-4 in the Realms:

My suggestion - replace Iuz with Iyachtu Xvim. Replace Zuggtmoy with Moander.
(As noted in Faiths & Avatars, Moander is dead. His cult has been resurrected
with the backing of Lolth as a way to corrupt a new wave of surface elves, like
she did with the drow so long ago.)

Place the entire complex in the Flooded Forest, and expand Hommlet into the
town of Ylraphon.

3.4.2. How to place A1-4 in the Realms:

Make the Iron Throne a front for the slave lords. Change the humanoids
to hobgoblins driven out of Impiltur. Replace Highport with Spandelyion and
change the Altumbel peninsula into the Pomarj. Place the actual Slave Lord city,
Suderham, in a volcano on the Isle of Earthspur in the center of the Sea of
Fallen Stars.

3.4.3. How to place G1-3 in the Realms:

Buy "Giantcraft". Send the PCs up to the Ice Spires as the number
of giant raids increase. Replace the giant steadings of Hartvale with G1, G2,
and G3.

Eric Boyd's ideas for setting G1-3 in the South:

a) There are known hill giants in the Tejarn Hills of Amn and the eastern Small
Teeth. I would place G1 there.

b) Frost Giants are unlikely to come this far south. However, if they do, they
probably live in the Snowflake Mts., the Cloud Peaks, or the Giant's Run Mts.
I would probably pick a remote part of the Cloud Peaks or skip this part altogether.

c) Fire giants probably live in the vicinity of a volcano. That suggests the
twin peaks known as Kossuth's Eyes in the Small Teeth might harbor a fire giant
hold.

If you do all this, I would suggest linking G1-3 to the Sythillusian Empire
troubles. The hill giants are already part of this, simply have the frost and
fire giants be part of the monster armies besieging Amn.

If you decide to add D1-3 to this as well, I would have the drow be from Guallidurth
(under the Calim Desert, mentioned in DDGttU) or from Karsoluthiyl (off the
coast of Baldur's Gate, under the sea floor, mentioned in DDGttU). I would probably
pick Guallidurth, and tie its actions back to the Night Wars (see the history
section of LoI and EoSS).

3.4.4. How to place U1-U3 in the
Realms:

Paul Westermeyer had an idea about U1-U3

I had a lot of luck setting U1-3 near the Town of Daggerford. There's a swamp
w/ lizardmen nearby, and the smugglers operation makes a bit of sense as well.
It worked especially well when I added Under Illefarn (N2?) to the mix. The
North Boxed set has a pretty detailed set up for Daggerford, most of which is
straight from Under Illefarn.

3.4.5. How to place "B1: In
Search of the Unknown" in the Realms:

Steve Allen placed B1: In Search of the Unknown near the source of the Esmei
River in the Troll Mountains in Amn.

3.4.6. How to place "L1: Bone
Hill" in the Realms:

Jeffrey David Bray placed L1: Bone Hill just below the Misty Forest in the
little nook created by the forest and the High Moor, with Restenford being almost
hard against the Moor

3.4.7. How to place the whole L1-L3
series (the Lendore Isles modules) in the Realms:

John Scott opined:

A while back someone asked about placing the Lendore Isles modules in the Realms.
Off the top of my head, I would recommend placing them in the Korrin Archipelago
(I have placed C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir among those islands. The Korrin
Archipelago is a great place to adventure, but I am hesitant to give more advice
since I don't have the original modules before me. It's at a higher latitude
than the Lendore Isles are in Greyhawk, and you have to keep in mind the size
of the island as well, depending on how closely you're trying to follow canon.

3.4.8. L3? I've only seen L1 &
L2!

Robert Thomson clarified:

As for L3, that is Deep Dwarven Delve, the final module in the L-series thatlay unpublished until 1999 when it was finally published in the TSR 25thAnniversary box set.

3.4.9. How to place the "Keep
on the Borderlands" and the return to same in the Realms:

I put it in eastern Cormyr; along the East Way just on the east edge of the
Hullack Forest. I explained the absence of the garrison as a result of the Crusade
(the Lord and most of his troops rode off the battle the Horde -- and did not
return).

Jay A. Johnson's ideas on the Keep on the Borderlands:

Given the dominance of low-level undead used by the Hidden Temple (especially
in the original version of Keep) I'd use Velsharoon, the Demipower of Necromancy
as one of the temple's patrons. Perhaps the temple was originally dedicated
to Myrkul and now that Velsharoon has taken over the portfolio of necromancy,
his priests have re-opened the temple and re-activated the coalition of nonhuman
tribes. However, I like the possibility of a joint temple with Shar - that would
be a frightening and wicked combination.

3.4.10. How to place " The Shattered
Circle" in the Realms:

Michael Austin says, "The Shattered Circle was one of the first adventures
I ran for my group in the Realms. I placed it in Shadowdale, within the Druid's
Grove. This worked great for me. I didn't run into any problems incorporating
it into my campaign."

Barry Smith ran The Shattered Circle in northeast Turmish, around the small
village of Sword Lake Creek.

Jeremy Worst says " I placed The Shattered Circle roughly 60 miles northeast
of Secomber, about 30 miles east of the Unicorn Run, and about 20 or so miles
south of the edge of the High Forest. I placed a small abbey to Lathander a
day's journey northwest of the Circle (a paladin of Lathander was the nominal
leader of the party) and that is where they began the module. I had been placing
some rumors of missing shepherds and such beforehand, so when the abbot asked
them to investigate the strange disappearances, the party was more than willing
to help--with some encouragement from the LG paladin. The abbot suggested they
might want to investigate those strange stones lying in a circle to the southeast,
as that fit the general area of the missing folk.

3.4.11. How to place "The Night
Below" super-module in the Realms:

And here are several ideas for The Night Below super-module:

David Dodge--

I put it just north of the shining plains near the Orsraun Mountains (this
area is south of Westgate and the Guithmere, north of Assam and Ormath (these
are in the Northwest part of the Vilhon Reach Map)). This area was relatively
undetailed at the time I ran my game, but even with the publication of the Vilhon
Reach game I think you can use the area without disturbing too much. I liked
the location. The geography meshed well (explanation follows) and the location
was fairly close to my core campaign area of Cormyr. I put the valley of Haranshire
just west of the Orsraun Mountains. This worked out well, as the Flooded Forest
area became one of the wetland/marsh areas on the southwest corner of the Haranshire
area map. The hills on the west side of the Haranshire map became the foothills
of the Orsraun Mtns. I had the north-south road parallel the river (name escapes
me) that runs north to south through the shining plains. The Haranshire rivers
merely flowed into it. I started the game in Westgate with the young adventurers
assigned to deliver the package.

Chris Perry--

Try Delimyir Vale. Eliminate most of the surface sub-adventures and set
up a keep taken by Cyricists somewhere northwest of Llorkh. Perhaps the Zhentarim
in Llorkh are concerned about mage kidnappings, or perhaps a cell within their
organization has been taken over by the aboleth (or whoever). Put the goblins
near the High Moor or on the western edge of the Greypeak Mountains. The magical
stone was placed in some part of Southwood. If one has to start in a small village,
they can start in Zelbross (west of Loudwater).

Jeremy Patrick--

I placed the Night Below in the North, with the Garlstone Mines in the hills
southeast of Beliard and the two villages east of the River Dessarin. This
way the PCs had Waterdeep accessible.

N. Todd Antill--

I placed The Night Below south of Raven's Bluff around Sevenecho... It fits
in pretty well there, and you can always make use of the New Raven's Bluff info.

Daniel Meyer--

I placed NB just south of the Cloven Mountains and High Peaks. A close look
at the maps shows that the water systems match perfectly. And the name of the
woods in NB is the same also. Stretch out some light forest from the Thornwood
to the south and the similarity is uncanny. Besides taking advantage of the
new material like EotSS, Calimport, the Erlkazar area from LoI, and Vilhon Reach,
it makes sense for the story line in other aspects related to the Realms.
[some spoilers followed which I have deleted--AH]

3.4.12. How to place "Forge of
Fury" in the Realms:

And here are several ideas for the Forge of Fury:

Renshai --

Personally, I placed the Forge of Fury in my Erlkazar campaign. It fit in with
the strong dwarven history of the south. I put it in the foothills of the High
Peaks near Rivenshield. IMC, it served as one of Tathtar's ancient outposts.
The dungeon could easily be located in the High Forest or any mountainous region
in the Realms. Faerun is full of ancient dwarven kingdoms...

Nigel Pope --

If you wanted to tie the Forge of Fury into a Realms campaign the Forlorn Hills
would also be a suitable area to use. The dungeons would then be a legacy of
the Fallen Kingdom.

3.4.13. How to place "The Sunless
Citadel " in the Realms:

Nigel Pope --

If you wanted to tie the Sunless Citadel into a Realms campaign the the Ardeep
Forest would be be a suitable area to use. The dungeons would then be a legacy
of the Fallen Kingdom. Moanderite influences would be a nice explanation for
some of the encounters in the Sunless Citadel.

3.4.14. How to place "The Silver
Key" in the Realms:

Jeff Bray--

I ran it a whiles back set in the North near Citadel Adbar. This was pre-Felbarr,
so the orcs were still really crawling over the region. I loved Dming it and
the players loved being orcs (well, except the elf). It worked very well and
Orc Points were a big hit. Everyone had at least 6 orc points and one players
was down his last chance when the adventure was over. He got 3 points in the
amount of time it took to burp and say 2 words, <BURP!> (realizing what
he did), "S***! (realizing he did it again), "F***!". By this
time, we were in hysterics. Another player got points for stuffing a handful
of chips in his mouth and allowing them to fallout. He argued it with his mouth
full, getting a second;) You have to remember to pay attention and enforce the
table points for this to sink in.

Bobby Nichols --

I ran it in my campaign. The party of PCs was based in Archendale and I had
the orcs invade while they were in Sessrendale exploring some old ruins. When
they arrived back In Archendale the Dale was half taken over by orcs and the
Swords were trying to force the orcs out. However, with the high magic of the
realms I had to do a couple of things....

1) I created a preponderance of priests in the orcs ranks. The priests were
of Gruumsh and there were rumors that the avatar of Gruumsh was about leading
the orcs.

2) All the priests were carrying these black rods. The rods absorbed

area-effect spells rendering fireballs and lightning bolts and any other large
area-effect spells useless.

3) The rods were psionic in nature and keyed to the use by the priests of Gruumsh.

4) Behind the scenes there was an avatar, or rather an illusion of an avatar.
There was a cabal of illithiliches using the orcs to thrust into Archendale.
the illithiliches thought there was a magical item in Archenbridge that they
had to have (I never really decided what that magical item was, it wasn't that
important).

5) The illithiliches were in turn being manipulated by the Sibilant Shadow,
a shadow dracolich that lairs beneath the Storm Horns. (I can never remember
the true name of that dragon!) Any how, the dracolich was causing chaos and
weeding out his information network due to recent infiltration by the Cult of
the Dragon. Easiest way to do this was cause the massive political unrest that
an orc invasion caused.

6) Both Cormyr and Sembia looked to increase their holding with the addition
of Archendale. However, Archendale leaned towards Sembia and Sembia managed
to take over the leadership of the army fighting the orcs. Eventually I planned
to have Sembia annex Archendale.

7) Or course, Cormyr wouldn't be happy with this and Deepingdale would be seeing
a lot more Cormyrian troops and people coming into it. Which would make the
elves and the Dalesmen of Deepingdale very unhappy.

8) Meanwhile, the Zhentarim would be using every resource they had to gain
influence. As would the iron Throne. And the Red Wizards. And the Cult of
the Dragon....

It turned into a fairly epic campaign.

3.5. How
large is Toril/Faerun/the Heartlands?

Let's get our terminology straight first. Toril (Abeir-Toril) is the planet
the Realms are found on. It's roughly Earth-sized, according to the Forgotten
Realms Campaign Setting.

Faerun is the continent on which most Realms adventures take place. It stretches
from Waterdeep and the Sword Coast in the west to the edge of the Hordelands
in the east. The map in the old Grey Box clearly shows that Faerun is larger
than North America by quite a bit. A quick calculation using the FR ATLAS reveals
that Faerun has an area of ~ 14 million square miles. The areas of North America,
Africa, and Asia are 9, 12, and 17 million square miles, respectively.

The Heartlands (3.5 million square miles) are the central portion of Faerun,
centered around Cormyr, the Dales, and the northern Sea of Fallen Stars. They
cover roughly the same area as the United States (3.6 million square miles).

3.6. Where
is Toril's equator?

Looking at the map in F&A, we can see that the equator runs through the
southern part of Maztica (just below the published map), through the northern
portion of Zakhara, and through the southern reaches of Kara-Tur. It falls
a little south of Nimbral (I think that's Nimbral) and well south of Chult.

Abeir-Toril, according to every published source, is roughly equivalent in
size to Earth. However, part of what determines the size of the tropics and
the intensity of the seasons is whether or not it has the same axial tilt.
Since there are very definite summers and winters, I'd say the axial tilt is
the same or perhaps even a little greater (23.5-25 degrees, as a ballpark guess).

Note also, from the same map, that even including Maztica we've only seen about
a third of the surface area of Toril. There's a LOT of room for more lands
to explore, to the west of Maztica and/or the east of Kara-Tur (as well as to
the south of everything).

3.7. How
long does it take to travel in the Underdark?

Eric Boyd explains:

Here's a rough rule of thumb you can use for estimating Underdark travel times,
assuming the travelers have sufficient magic & equipment to handle the terrain.

a) Locate the starting point and destination on a map of the surface Realms.
Determine the distance in miles between the two points as the crow flies.

b) If there is a regular trade route between the two points, triple the distance.

c) If not, determine if either point is wholly cut off from the rest of the
Underdark.

d) If not cut off, multiply the distance by 10.

e) If cut off, repeat the algorithm twice, but this time calculate the distance
between the starting point and the nearest surface exit, the time to travel
to the destination from the nearest surface entrance, and add those times
to the time it takes to travel across the surface.

f) Once the distance is established, use the movement charts in the FR boxed
set for rough terrain.

g) Don't forget to use the tables in the DMG for determining if the travelers
have gotten lost.

The motivation for the multipliers is to account for the difficulty of terrain
and for the tendency of Underdark tunnels to weave, twist, and double back.
It's a three-dimensional labyrinth after all...

3.8. What
was the origin of the High Moor?

A poster on the realms list asked:

I have discovered two very different creation stories for the High Moor. The
North box set talks about an incident that occurred during the Crown Wars. The
text reads, "Perhaps the greatest calamity to befall the Fair Folk was
the Dark Disaster, a killing magic that took the form of a dark, burning cloud.
It enshrouded the kingdom of Mieyritar, and when it faded away some months later,
not an elf lived -nor were trees left; only an open blasted moor: the High Moor.

>An excellent, epic creation story. However, it is directly contradicted
by the information presented in the Elminster's Ecology on the High Moor. In
this book, a rather unpleasant local druid explains that, "The High Moor
wasn't always a desolate moor. Quite a lot of evidence suggests that the High
Moor was once covered with rich woodlands. However, early peoples cleared the
forest for crops and to provide themselves with building materials. These early
peoples were mostly human tribes...In other words, the High Moor is an environment
created by humans. It is not a very pleasant place, and it clearly demonstrates
the negative impact that humans can have on an environment."

Andrew Phelps responded:

I consider this misinformation from the druid. This druid is probably not
an historian, so doesn't know about the Crown Wars. His explanation is typical
of a bitter, cynical druid who has seen humans destroy large tracts of land
and assumes the same happened here. The fact that he begins his whole lecture
with "quite a lot of evidence suggests that..." shows that he doesn't
know for sure. He can tell you that evidence points to the High Moor being
covered in rich woodland in the distant past, but can only speculate as to what
went wrong (like I said, he's a druid, not a historian). As it turns out, the
creation of the High Moor was caused by nothing so mundane as deforestation.
Humans can be blamed for a lot of things, but the High Moor isn't one of them.
This one falls to the elves.

If you read the history, you will find that events lead up to the Dark Disaster
that make it rather less unbelievable that elves might do such a thing. In
any case, it's a WAR. War ain't pretty. It's a lot like in Vietnam, where
Americans used a poison (agent orange?) that killed the trees. Nobody thought
about the implications, as everybody just wanted to win the war.

"The Burning Lands" was Jeff Grubb's original working title (from
1990 through 1992) for what became the lands of Zakhara, aka the AL-QADIM(R)
setting. As I always liked the title and it was too generic for TSR to copyright,
I still use it as an infrequent honorific subtitle when I make references to
the far south. That's all there is to say about it---just another name for the
land of the djinni...

3.11. Is there a list of all of
the mythal cities?

Eric Boyd:

There are/were a lot more than three mythal cities, and there are many "near-mythals"
as well. True mythals include those created by wizards and those created by
elven High Mages. (I've often wondered if there's not a priestly variant as
well.) I think Myth Drannor falls in the former camp and Myth Nantar in the
latter camp, but I don't know for sure. "Near-mythals" are usually
extensive magical wards, such as those created by the wizard spell "Wardmist"
(detailed in various Volo's Guides). Of the true mythal cities, these are the
ones we currently know about ...

Myth Drannor (detailed in Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Ruins of Myth Drannor)
Myth Nantar (mentioned in RoMD and detailed in Sea of Fallen Stars and (partially)
in the Wyrmskull Throne)
Myth Lharest (mentioned in RoMD, briefly described in Lands of Intrigue: Amn
and Faiths & Avatars (Selune write-up))
Myth Glauroch (mentioned in RoMD)
Myth Dyraalis (discussed in Lands of Intrigue: Tethyr
Myth Rhynn (discussed in Lands of Intrigue: Tethyr)
Myth Unnohyr (discussed in Lands of Intrigue: Tethyr)
Myth Ondeth (mentioned in VGtATM and Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves)
Myth Iiscar, a flying city which as fallen onto the isle of Lantan (discussed
in Cormanthyr)
Myth Adofhaer, last city of Siluvanede in the High Forest, placed, along with
its inhabitants, into stasis and removed from Faerun until certain conditions
are met to restore it and its people to the Realms. (discussed in Cormanthyr)
Ascalhorn (the mythal is mentioned in The North and Hellgate Keep)

Of course, one wonders why Ascalhorn wasn't called "Myth Ascalhorn"
or something like that ... ;-)

Although it's not a city, I seem to recall that Herald's Holdfast is protected
by a mythal as well. I don't have my references handy to check.

3.11.1. What are exactly the functions
or use of the Mythals? I always thought they were centers of magic energy or dweomers?

The function of mythals is to provide defense and a pleasant environment for
those who dwell within. Some also serve as a common meeting ground for races
that cannot normally survive in the same environment. The powers of Myth Drannor
and Myth Nantar are best known, so you might want to check the appropriate references
(RoMD and C:EoE in the former case and SoFS in the latter case) for details.
No two mythals are alike, but all have a wide range of major and minor powers.
I often think of them as the "climate controlled utopia" of Disney's
1950's version of the future.

Mythals are essentially living things and can become corrupted, such as happened
to Myth Drannor, and then their powers can get wild and/or dangerous. One way
of destroying them is the Gatekeeper's Crystal (mentioned in The North and detailed
in VGtATM).

3.12. Is the Moonsea salt or fresh
water?

The Moonsea is freshwater, as is the River Lis. The Sea of Fallen Stars is
generally saltwater, although both the Lake of Dragons (Dragonmere) and the
Vilhon Reach might be considered "brackish", i.e. somewhere in between.
The latter in particular is uncomfortable for many aquatic saltwater dwellers.

3.13. Does Toril have time zones?

From: Trent Raley

Toril

Circumference = 23,400 approx

24 time zones

Axial tilt is ~ 19-25 degrees

Prime Meridian is Myth Drannor

Other time zones are based on meridian lines of globe function in Forgotten
Realms Interactive Atlas (two per square).

Time zones are 975 miles wide.

Nit-pick -- that is 975 miles wide at the equator of course. This will dwindle
down to zero as you approach the poles.

And Bryon Wischstadt added:

You should have been a Luka's Bar during GenCon when we worked this out! (I
took notes) :) Something Trent didn't mention (we're co-DMs) is that with gates
transporting the user instantly (as ::ahem:: *most* do) we got to thinking about
adding another bit of realism to the game. We wanted to know what time of day
it was when the party arrived in their new destination halfway across Faerun.
From the player's perspective, they step through a gate mid-morning and arrive
at a place that is still dark... this is a nice cue to the players that they
have moved quite a distance. (They don't know the destinations of the gates)
As you can see it's quick and relatively simple--add 2 hrs per grid on the atlas--and
you'll end up with something kinda cool from both the DM and players' perspectives.
As Trent said "Hope this helps"... Enjoy!

3.14. What's
Luruar? It's not on my map...

Luruar is the new confederation in the North, formed and headed by Alustriel
of Silverymoon. It debuted, unnamed, in the North boxed set, and was named by
a vote of gamers at Gen Con 1997. The first appearance of Luruar in print was
in an article by Steven Schend in the DRAGON Annual #1. Luruar is now known
as the Silver Marches.

3.14.1. Where are the Silver Marches?
What happened to Luruar?

Steven Schend explained:

The name chosen at GenCon 95 was Luruar, in honor of Lurue, the patron goddess
of the area and the city (well, one of five but the most prominent in worship).

It was decided that Luruar was too hard to pronounce and thus the change to
The Silver Marches. Personally, that's okay for a political name; I still call
the general area/terrain the Moonlands myself....

3.14.2. What the heck is a march anyway?
Isn't it like a moor?

Tom Rinschler explained:

Well, your impression of marches being swampy wildernesses is
not entirely wrong;lands bordering on untamed areas could well
be moors and swamps.To give some real-life historical background,
many medieval European states hadmarches; England's Earl of March
held lands near the border of Wales; Scotland'sEarl of March
lived along the English border. The Holy Roman Empire had loads ofmarches
("mark" in German; the ruler was a "markgraf"; the title
was marquis inFrance). Austria was originally "Ostmark"
or Eastern March; Brandenburg, aroundBerlin was a march, and
the area along the Danish border was the Danish March;Denmark
derives from that title. A lot of these areas are indeed rather barren,isolated places, as borders are wont to be.

If the FR team is going to be feudally correct, the proper term in Englsh for
aruler of a march is marquess if male or marchioness if female.
It will beinteresting to see if we will have Marchioness Alustriel
or Bruenor Battlehammer,Marquis de Mithral Hall. :-)

3.15. Where can I get information
on the Dwarven complex in the Laughing Hollow? I see it on my FR Atlas. Where
or what is/was Illefarn?

George Krashos explained:

N5 Under Illefarn is the only source which details the dwarven holdings near
the Laughing Hollow. Illefarn itself was originally an elf kingdom that lasted
until c. 340 DR when the green elves left for Evermeet. A sizable number of
moon elves (the ones from Ardeep) stayed on and struck an alliance with the
dwarves of Dardath (a small dwarven realm under the Horn/Forlorn Hills) and
formed the 'second' Illefarn. It was this alliance of elves and dwarves that
built the House of Stone (detailed in a recent Volo's column in Dragon). In
523 DR, Illefarn ceased to exist as a sovereign entity as it allied with the
humans, gnomes and halflings of the Delimbiyr to form Phalorm, the Realm of
Three Crowns (also more popularly known as the Fallen Kingdom). Phalorm disintegrated
in 614 DR and saw Delimbiyran, the Kingdom of Man arise in its wake.

The Seatower of Ilinyth was around during the time of Phalorm. It no longer
exists save as ruins. Mentioned in FR11 Dwarves Deep. Orlumbor is detailed in
The North boxed set and Volo's Guide to the North.

3.16. Where's Mount Melairbode? Is
it near Waterdeep?

Steven Schend revealed:

Yup. That's the contemporary title of the dungeon that would become known in
modern times as Undermountain. By the by, the modern state of the Hall of Naturalists
was the dungeon in the original grey box (and previously in an adventure in
Dragon Magazine).

3.17.Where's Freedale?

John Harbord relates:

The Introduction to AD&D TSR released in a big black shiny box in 1995
is set in the town of Freedale. On page 29 of the DMs booklet they provide a
map showing the location of the township: its on the northern bank of the Ashaba
between the small forest that borders southern Shadowdale & Cormanthor Forest
(the map also includes the location of the Shallain Freehold, the village of
Shadowdale, Dagger Falls, Voonlar, & other locations that clearly marks
it as FR)

Jay A. Johnson added:

Calling Freedale a town is a bit generous. In fact, the Intro to AD&D
box set calls it (at various times) both a town and a city. However, at 13
buildings, it's really just a village - and a small one at that. The village
has all of the cliche' sites needed to serve as a base for low-level adventurers:
the obligatory general store, a tavern, an inn, a dwarven blacksmith's shop,
and a reclusive sage/mage (named Netheril) who owns his own tower, sells a few
low-powered magic items, and sends the occasional band of novice adventurers
on various quests. On the other hand, it was reasonably tied into FR in places.
The priest at the temple of Lathander was only 4th or 5th level. The text noted
that many spells were beyond his level - but that he could draw on the resources
of the Morninglord's Temple at Shadowdale with a couple of day's notice.

In addition to Freedale, the box set also had three adventures set in the Shadowdale
area. The Tomb of Damara is a typical dungeon crawl, set in the woods to the
south of Shadowdale Village. The Ghost of Harrow Hill is a haunted mansion,
set in the Dagger Hills. The final adventure is Mount Dread, a monster infested
mountain in the portion of the Thunder Peaks directly north of Tilver's Gap.

All in all, I would certainly say that this box set is not necessary for anyone's
Realms collection. It's not a bad box set though, and fitting it into a serious
realms campaign is fairly easy. Change the stupid sounding names (there are
more than a few), give real backgrounds and motivations to the cardboard NPC's,
and away you go.

3.18. On page 99 of the Realms Atlas
is a place called Neiroon's Hut. It's on the eastern coast of the Dales where
the River Lis joins TSOFS. Any info on the place and/or who Neiroon is/was???
(have wanted to know since 1990).

Ed Greenwood writes:

Neiroon 'the Schemer' was a hermit (retired adventurer) who was a tutor of
one of the Knights of Myth Drannor. He was a character with several classes,
including druid and illusionist, and he deliberately remains a mystery. (In
other words, because of the 'home' Realms campaign, more won't be revealed at
this time; sorry.)

3.19. Apart from the obvious does
EVER as in Evermeet & Evereska mean anything??? Maybe a corruption of Elven,
or perhaps 'land of elves'?

3.20. What's known about the Moonshaes?
Are they volcanic in nature? Are they separated bits of the continent? What
about their culture as originally conceived by Ed Greenwood?

Ed Greenwood writes:

The 'original' Moonshaes are akin to LeGuin's Earthsea: hundreds of little
islands, long-extinct volcanic peaks that rise up out of the sea abruptly, are
inhabited by fisherfolk (with a few larger islands that have forests, farms,
etc.) nothing much above the rural village culture on most, with self-styled
'lords' on others...and like Earthsea, somewhat like the Celtic-era Hebrides...they
occupy the same space as TSR's (Doug Niles's) Moonshaes, arcing from a 'wide
spray' at the Sword Coast or eastward extent, curving and narrowing southwest
and curving to south...in other words, a large area of 'perilous sea' with awash
rocks, reefs, etc. and safe channels that only the locals know.

3.21. What's the Pool of Radiance?

David W. Lemburg answers:

The Pool of Radiance is a book: by James Word and Jane Cooper. "Humans
battle humaniods to reclaim the ruined city of Phlan." It's also an older
computer game based on the book. The game was put out by SSI in the late 80's
or early 90's.

It's also a unique magical contruction. It is located [or was located] in the
city of Phlan. The god Bane and a creature named Tyanthraxus the Great Possessor
were heavily involved with the Pool of Radiance. It was located in the Valjevo
Castle in Old Phlan.

*3.22. Where do the names "Toril"
and "Faerun" come from?

There are conflicting opinions:

Pat Werda dug up:

In Evermeet: IoE, it is revealed that Faerun is an elven word meaning "the
one land" which is what the elves saw it as before the High Magic that
created Evermeet cracked the end of the continent off and hauled it out to see,
forming the Moonshaes et al as it went.

Pierre Godbout clarifies:

It doesn't mean anything really. It was called Faerûn by prince Durothil,
the first gold elf to have ever set foot on Toril. He led his people out of
Faerie, his home world, and upon feeling that the Weave was strong in this new
world, he named it Faerûn, which is similar to Faerie in pronunciation but it
didn't mean anything else in their language. You could interpret it as something
that sounded like their home world, but that could remind them gently that they
were somewhere new and that they now had to move on. This is all found in Evermeet,
Island of Elves.

Jason Hatter adds:

IIRC, the grey box (or it might be the 2nd Ed box) states that abeir-toril
is thought to be dwarven in etymology. Abeir-toril is an translates loosely
as meaning 'Cradle of Life'".

Faer is (again, iirc) a dwarven word indicating magic.

*3.23. What happened to the map?!?
It changed when third edition came out!

Mr. Baker explains:

1. We started with the constraint that we had one standard-sized poster available
in the FR Campaign Setting book, and a desire to show a good map of Faerun
on that poster.

2. A marketing poster from a couple of years ago showed all of Faerun, as
well as the ocean as far as Evermeet, on a single standard poster. However,
the map scale was 180 miles to the inch, and great amounts of that poster
were wasted space--the ocean between Evermeet and Faerun, plus an inordinate
amount of the Great Glacier and the higher regions of Anauroch.

3. We examined it closely and realized that we could draw the same map at
120 miles to the inch, a 50% increase in detail and attractiveness, by choosing
to leave Evermeet off the map. There was sufficient east- west room to do
this without "changing" anything.

4. However, covering the exact same north-south area shown on that previous
poster was impossible. In other words, we had lots of east-west room, but
were "short" on north-south room. We had to find a way to not show
several hundred miles of north-south on the map.

5. In order to get rid of north-south space, we started by "tilting"
Faerun to the west, which makes the Sword Coast angle more sharply toward
the northwest instead of pretty much due north, as it formerly had. This did
a few things for us right off the bat -- it moved a lot of the Great Glacier
and the Great Ice Sea right out of the desired image area and it lowered the
North so that we could show a little more of the Spine of the World/Icewind
Dale area. It also took that long Chultan coast and made it run more or less
straight east-west, whereas it had previously run west-northwest to east-southeast.

6. Then we carefully deleted long east-west strips in various places in and
around the interior of Faerun in order to bring the north and south map edges
closer together. We identified the Sea of Fallen Stars and the lands around
it as the most recognizable geographic feature in Faerun, and so made sure
that we left it virtually untouched (that's why I'm a little surprised that
Turmish looks different, since I know we really didn't touch it).

7. After we removed enough north-south distance to fit the map the way we
wanted, we redrew the entire map from scratch based on the work we'd done
so far, in order to "smooth" the places where we had introduced
distortions. For example, the Deepwash came south a little bit, while the
south coast (Dambrath, Luiren, etc.) curved much more sharply to the north
in order to make up the missing space in the eastern Shaar.

Anyway, what you get for all this is Faerun at 120 miles to the inch, with
over 600 map tags and many features that were never shown in detail before on
a map of the whole continent. It's far and away the best map of the whole continent
that we've done.

4.People
of the Realms

4.1. Who'd
win: Elminster or Drizzt?

Depends on who's writing the book.

Seriously, this topic (or a variation with different characters) crops up all
the time. The question's essentially unanswerable; it's always possible to set
up a situation where one person can win and the other can't--and vice versa.
The short answer is that the novelists are unlikely to ever set up a situation
where there's serious conflict between two major heroes of the Realms, so the
question is relatively moot.

If you're entertained by this kind of discussion, great--but please don't flood
the list with it.

This question has been raised so many times at conventions that Ed Greenwood
once jokingly suggested writing a novel where Drizzt and El would have a little
battle in between chapters, keeping tally on who won the most (and of course
losing count--which was even).

Elaine Cunningham also had a comment:

Say there's a soccer match going on. The Dallas Cowboys crash through the
stands, trampling several dozen spectators and inadvertently breaking up several
vehement soccer-related arguments. Their actions, naturally, go virtually unnoticed
until they actually leap onto the playing field. They are joined by the NY
Yankees, who are fed up with such indignities as urban decay, blueberry bagels,
and George Steinbrenner. They are seriously pissed off and are wielding non-regulation
metal bats. So. What happens to the soccer players? Who wins the game?

The answer, if indeed there can be an answer, can only be phrased as another
question: What set of rules are they playing by? Oh--and a followup question:
Who's telling the story? That's the classic answer authors give to the perennial
Someone-vs-Someone Else question, and it applies here well enough.

4.2. Elminster

4.2.1. Don't
you think Elminster is too powerful? No, he has to be to give the PCs a challenge!
Yes, he's a munchkin! We killed him off five times! etc.

The only resolution I've ever seen to this debate is when the monitors get
fed up enough to ban the topic. Some people love El; some people loathe him.
Usually for the same reasons. :-)

If you think Elminster doesn't need powers approximating most demigods, tone
him down or don't use him at all. If you think your party will need to be humbled
from time to time, keep him around. It's a matter of personal choice.

4.2.2. Aren’t
the Chosen overpowered? If they can do everything, what’s left for the PCs?

Ed Greenwood writes:

Many on the list habitually comment that Elminster or other Chosen are
"munchkins" or overpowered...but this often arises from ignoring the
fact that they are divinely-powered servants of a goddess, and viewing them
as "lucky former player characters who were given a superpower by Mystra...why
can't my PCs have it, too?" is the wrong approach for good game refereeing.
Those who find their powers undesirable can simply leave them 'offstage' in
their campaigns. I've lost track of the number of times when guesting players
believed their character, by virtue of being a PC, could march into a royal
court, hurl insults and swordcuts in all directions, pillage, burn, and butcher
a ruler on his or her own throne, and then say, "Ah, but it's okay by my
alignment and nothing can stop me, hey? I'm a Player Character!" Teaching
the lesson that leads to better roleplaying (and thus, continuing challenge
and interest in the game, for that player) is best done within the game...such
as by having the butchered king get up, blood and wounds vanishing in an instant,
yawn, and say in the tones of Elminster, "Well, now that ye've gotten THAT
out of thy guts, can we be introduced, perhaps? I've met thy SWORD already..."
Heavy-handed, to be sure...but that's one way of using the overly powerful,
and why they're there.

If one views the Chosen as "Ed's favorite super-powered characters,"
well of course they're overpowered anomalies best dropped from the setting.
Yet I find on the list a paucity of posters who look around at the world they
live in and say there should be no presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens,
or governing councils purely because "they're too powerful to be realistic"...they're
part of the setting one finds oneself in. Now, if a player character thinks
one or more should be removed or replaced by his or her actions, that's another
matter...(driving force for a campaign, anyone?). We do all this to increase
and enrich potential roleplaying possibilities, folks. The thousands of fans
who love the Realms prove this must be the right approach, but we screw up on
specifics and details all the time; that's why we read and listen, hoping you'll
point out the slip-ups to us, so we can always be better...

To better roleplayers, their mere presence on the scene (and that of power
groups such as the Zhents and Red Wizards and Twisted Rune, as well as the often-ignored
merchant costers and guilds and more mundane commercial alliances) guides play,
offers fascinating possibilities, and keeps players and their characters speculating
and interested in the setting (as the postings on this list, year after year,
prove).

If you read the fiction (and between the lines in non-fiction, especially in
boxed sets Steven has done or Steven and I have done together), you'll find
lots of instances of 'common folk' bitterly telling the Chosen that such-and-such
didn't help them much, or console them much, or restore things much. Such comments
tend to be grim and terse--but then, those making them fear the Chosen, and
the goddess they serve (the main reason why most rebuffs are muttered and not
shouted).

We also underscore often that the information you receive about the Realms
is distorted (through Elminster); this allows any DM to change things in his
or her own campaign without the "canon/non-canon" arguments ever arising.
Our faulty journalists (remember this is by our modern real-world standards;
they're doing nothing wrong by THEIR standards) are part of this.

As to player characters having free choice taken from them, it's best to see
that as an ongoing attempt to bolster realism and encourage roleplaying: it's
realistic, by the terms of the created setting one is playing in, that PCs begin
as low-level unknowns (unless you choose to play a royal or noble character),
and must build their power and influence: only a 'lifeless stage set' campaign
has static 'target' people in it and PCs who can act as they please, without
consequences, manipulation from others, stronger folks trying to muscle them
around, etc. Part of becoming true heroes for the player characters is to force
their will and destiny on the world around and on themselves, rather than being
'acted upon' by the more powerful. Some DMs may not want that challenge in their
play, but we put it there for use by those who do.

4.2.3. So…
What’s the real scoop on Mystra’s chosen? How can they stay sane for all those
centuries? And why are they all goody-two-shoes?

Here’s what Ed Greenwood thinks:

Mystra believes that the ultimate good comes from the proliferation of magic
and its widespread use, being put into all hands, for good or for ill...so the
Chosen are judged on how much they hurl magic around, give it to others, teach
others, and work against tyrants-of-magic like the Zhents, not because the Zhents
are "evil," but because they try to restrict control of magic to themselves,
and not let potential foes have it. The Chosen who are Mystra's daughters also
had (under the 'old' Mystra, their mother) a special status, which Elminster
(her lover) also enjoyed...the new Mystra is changing things. Watch what we
do in the years ahead with The Magister (I've turned in an FOR-style sourcebook
on that office and what its holders do) and with Khelben, the most 'ungood'
of "good" Chosen. It's wrong to see the Chosen as necessarily good...it's
more accurate to see them as the veteran-killer-American-GI or Wild West gunslinger
who does good, or fights for 'good,' but in doing so is twisted far from good
him- or herself.

Part of my writing goals have been to underscore the following things: "do-gooders"
often do more harm than good, for the best of motives (Elaine's also been playing
with this one); 'good' to one party is not 'good' to another (the old saying,
"for one man to gain freedom, another must lose it"); and the best
meddlers are those who can see farthest, not the brute-force-right-now brigade
(which is what most PC parties of necessity are, and therefore their punishments/reward
are immediate).

One postscript I almost forgot: with Elminster in particular and all of the
Chosen, Steven and I (at least) are delving into "how insane do you go
from living so long with godly power and gods messing with your mind?"
Everything El and the other Chosen do should be read in this light; they're
NOT sane. I've been hinting at this for a long time, but you have to catch the
hints (like the good/happy endings, this was a Code of Ethics thing, which is
why we can't show villains poisoning, or succeeding, or telling you their detailed
plans that someone in the real world might copy or claim as inspiration, etc.).

4.2.4. It takes a 41st
level mage to cast "Create Mythal". Elminster helped lay Myth Drannor's
Mythal. That was long ago, and he's not even 41st level now. What's
up? Did he lose levels?

Steven Schend, Mythal Consultant, explained;

The suggestion that "Create Mythal" is a 10th level spell is largely
still true, but needing 41st level casters was a bit of fiction that has since
been amended--After all, with Elminster dictating and controlling what information
we get, some of it's bound to be twisted and altered by its messenger. In this
case, the idea of setting the levels (on spell and caster) that high were to
set mythal creation out of the hands of player characters--That's the sole reason
for that.

Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves updates and amends all of the details on Myth Drannor's
mythal (in its uncorrupted, new state), its creation, and elven magics in general.
It also reveals the identities of all the casters of the mythal, and of those
you mentioned above, all are secondary or tertiary casters who contributed powers
and energy but were not direct casters of the primary magics that built the
mythal.

As for El losing levels over the years, of course he has. Going toe-to-toe
for centuries fighting liches and battling all sorts of otherplanar dangers
is a surefire way to encounter some level draining. After all, with 12 centuries
of life, he'd have to have lost some levels if normal mortals can still reach
his strict class level. Just remember--all the power one wields cannot be measured
by level numbers alone...

4.3. Zhents
and the Zhentarim

4.3.1. Whats the difference between
saying "Zhents" or Zhentarim?

Sean Reynolds explains: Compare and contrast.... "The Zhentarim came into
Llork on that summer day and before we could do anything the Zhents had taken
the sheriff prisoner." "The Zhentarims came into Llork on that summer
day and before we could do anything the Zhents had taken the sheriff prisoner."
"Zhent" is not a singular or plural form of "Zhentarim."
The former refers to people associated specifically with Zhentil Keep, the latter
with members of the Black Network. Zhentarim is a term for an organization,
like "the Mafia." It does not have a plural because there is only
one group called the Zhentarim. You wouldn't say "two mafias walked into
my restaurant." You'd say "two guys from the Mafia walked into my
restaurant."

4.3.2. What's up with the Zhents coming
back from the dead?

[Thanks to Ami-Ben Ezra for this section.]

Both Manshoon and Fzoul were killed many times. Manshoon returns to life by
the means of a secret spell-"Stasis clone". Manshoon is known to have
many clones hidden in secret places. Fzoul was resurrected by the Zhentarim/Bane
because he is such a "valuable" person. Even Sememmon was resurrected
by Manshoon a couple of times.

To Conclude this:

All Three leaders of the Zhentarim(The inner circle)returned from death by
various means.

As for the locations:

Both Manshoon and Fzoul lived in Zhentil Keep before it was destroyed.(Manshoon
lived in his own compound "The Tower High") After the destruction
Manshoon moved to the safety of the Citadel of the Raven and Fzoul stays in
the keep, now he worships the Godson of Bane Iyachtu Xvim. Sememmon is the commander
of Darkhold and lived there (since 1312DR) before and after the destruction.

At one point, multiple Manshoon clones were created, resulting in what's affectionately
known as the "Manshoon Wars." For more info, see Cloak and Dagger.

4.4. Are
Marco Volo and Volo from the Volo's Guides the same person?

No, they're not. Marco Volo is a bard of 6th level whose real name is Marcus
Wands (grandson of Maskar Wands of Waterdeep). Volo, whose full name is Volothamp
Geddarm, is the notorious wizard and writer of several guides to the Forgotten
Realms, including Guide to All Things Magical which has resulted in him being
turned into a toad. Marcus Wands changed his name to Marco Volo to try cash
in on Volothamp Geddarm's success.

*4.5.
Who/what are the Malaugrym?

The official description of the Malaugrym can be found in the "Villains
Lorebook." Additional, quite extensive details on the Malaugrym and their
home in the plane of Shadows can be found in the "Shadow of the Avatars"
trilogy of TSR novels by Ed Greenwood.

Bobby Nichols talked to Ed Greenwood and reported back:

Imagine a family of people who all are incredible powerful spellcasters. Now
imagine that they find a source of power previously undiscovered. Not also
imagine that the members of this family grew so powerful that they became paranoid
and suspicious of everything, even each other....

Anyone read the Amber books by Roger Zelezny? Ed said that the Malaugrym are
the closest things to Amberites that the Realms have. Which mad me shiver thinking
about how powerful they might be....

One last thing, no one Malaugrym is like another. All are individuals and
specialize in different ways and means of casting spells. In other words, Malaugrym
A might like ice and cold spells and Malaugrym B might prefer illusions and
mind control spells. And only rarely do Malaugrym A and B talk or work with
one another.

That isn't to say that the Malaugrym *won't* work together. Ed hinted that
the Malaugrym might have quite a bit to do with the Harpstar Wars...

Ed added later:

As for the Malaugrym...my old novel Spellfire will be re-released with a few
revisions soon, and one of them will show readers that the Blood of Malaug are
just one big, bickering clan of shapeshifters, some of whom have magic (a la
wizards), some of whom are sorcerers, some of whom are just nasty warrior-types,
and many of whom are ignorant of the clan roster. Some go to Faerun to steal
spells or magic items to make themselves more powerful vis-a-vis other (rival)
Malaugrym...and so on. In other words, Malaugrym A might be a challenge to a
7th level warrior (or whatever you want to call that fighter type, depending
on the version of the game you're using :}), and another might give a W22 a
run for their money.

*4.6.
Shandril is a *babe*. Where can I find rules to give my PC spellfire?

The original spellfire rules were published in "Hall of Heroes",
long out of print. There are revised versions in "Heroes' Lorebook",
"Volo's Guide to All Things Magical", and available for free download
on the TSR web site.

See the 3E Campaign Setting for 3E spellfire rules. For more 2E info, see the
novel Spellfire, pages 356-357, and Poly #117.

Please don't post about how unbalancing, unrealistic, or just plain silly spellfire
is. It invariably starts an argument. Those who agree with you agree already,
and the ones who disagree aren't likely to change their minds. (Besides, some
of the ones who agree may still use spellfire because it's just so damn cool.)

4.7. My
player wants to play a half-dragon. Where can I find rules for this?

The Council of Wyrms boxed set (NOT, as in happens, set in the Realms) has
rules for half-dragon PCs. There was a supplement published in Dragon (no, it
wasn't half the magazine), and I believe the rules or some abridgement thereof
are available for free download from the TSR web site.

4.8. Who are/were the Witch lords?

DM Celtic contributes:

In late 800s, kingdom of Cormyr entered conflict with Witch Lords to the east
of Cormyr. The Witch Lords were evil necromancer lords who ruled territory east
of Wheloon and Wyvernwater and west of Sembia.

In the Year of Thirsty Swords (900 DR), King Galaghard of Cormyr battled the
forces of the Witch Lords at Wheloon, Juniril, and Manticore's Crossing. The
final battle between the two forces occurred at the Vast Swamp, with Cormyr
winning with help from elven stag cavalry. You can find information on that
battle in excellent "Cormyr: A Novel" chapter 20, named "Battle
of the Witch Lords". In said chapter, you can see that these Lords have
a strong affinity for necromantic magics, as they animated a whole army of undead
(even the fallen soldiers of Cormyr and their own fallen mercenaries from other
battles) along with some alive humanoids (orcs and goblins IIRC) to face the
brave king of Forest Kingdom. The Lords' wizards flew on the backs of giant
bats and battled flying War Wizards of Cormyr in the air above the ground battle
between Cormyte army and dark horde. Coryr would have lost the battle were it
not for elven lords and their stag cavalry. The Witch Lords dropped off the
radar after this battle.

4.9. Who are/were the Twisted Rune?

Todd Antill found:

The Twisted Rune is a "very" secret organization (or a cabal for
a more appropriate term) of evil aligned undead beings. This cabal reigns in
the background of the South (Tethyr, Calimshan, Arnaden, Erlkazar, and Amn)
from behind the scenes. The masters of the Rune, called "RuneMasters or
Mistresses" consists of several high level Liches, a Dracolich and powerful
Vampiress who wields a pretty powerful magic item detailed in the Sea of Fallen
Stars (thanks for that one Steve!) , and many others. They have a network of
undead, and underworld beings that span the shadier backdrop of the entire Southern
Realms. The best thing about this Network is that they don't really know whom
they are working for.... unlike many other organizations in the south, The Rune
is "Secret", and very few know of their presence. They actually rule
Calimshan from behind the scenes...and no one is the wiser.

They are currently responsible for the War against the Sithillisian Empire
in Southern Amn, and the advance of the Knights of the Black Gauntlet against
Tethyr's Southern borders... These guys have their hands in so many goings on
in the south, a party could easily be facing their minions for years and never
realize they work for the same people.

If you are looking for more info on the Rune, I suggest Lands of Intrigue,
and Empire of the Shining Sea as a start. They are mentioned briefly in other
products (such as Stardock and Sea of Fallen Stars), but the bulk of the info
lies in the first two...

4.10. Who are/were the D'Tarig?
What races of dwarven halfbreeds exist in the Realms?

Eric Boyd explains In the Realms (and I stress only in the Realms), there are
three known races or crossbreeds with dwarven and human blood.

a) Half-dwarves, as defined in FR11 - Dwarves Deep, are the offspring of
a human and a dwarf, a human and a half-dwarf, or a half-dwarf and a half-dwarf.
The offspring of a half-dwarf and a dwarf is a true dwarf. (In other words,
half-dwarves favor their dwarven parent.) They look just like dwarves, except
a little taller on average, and have all the abilities and restrictions of
dwarves. It is for these reasons that some dwarves believe the best way to
restore the race is to breed with much more fertile human females.

b) The D'Tarig are a unique race with human and dwarven ancestry and basically
human abilities. They are not "half-dwarves." It is unspecified
what the offspring of a D'Tarig and human would be, but I would speculate
the child would be essentially human. It is unspecified what the offspring
of a D'Tarig and a dwarf or half-dwarf would be, but I would speculate the
child would be a half-dwarf as defined previously.

c) The derro are a unique race with human and dwarven ancestry and there
own unique abilities. They are not "half-dwarves." It is unspecified
what the offspring of a derro and a human would be, but I would speculate
any offspring would favor the derro side, and breed true like a derro. It
is unspecified what the offspring of a derro and dwarf or half-dwarf would
be, but I would speculate that any offspring would favor the dwarf side, and
breed true like a dwarf. Regardless, the issue is probably moot, because derro
may well be infertile with both dwarves and humans so warped are they by the
process of the race's creation. If an offspring were to be produced, they
would probably be killed immediately by any of the above-mentioned races.

4.11. Who/what is/was Wulgreth?

George Krashos summed up:

Wulgreth made his first appearance in FR5 The Savage Frontier. In that accessory,
he is a lich who lives in the Dire Wood and is just plain nasty. The write-up
of Hellgate Keep notes that it was Wulgreth who summoned the first devils into
Hellgate Keep - but it doesn't mention when exactly Wulgreth became a lich.
It is noted however that the devils had many mages of Ascalhorn embrace lichdom,
so it could have been before the fall of Ascalhorn.

The North boxed set gave us a date for the fall of Ascalhorn (The Year of the
Curse 882 DR) - which IMHO is far too late in the timeline for various reasons
I won't go into now - and the Hellgate Keep accessory gave us the timeline for
Ascalhorn/Hellgate Keep in total. This information pretty much corresponds with
the information in FR5.

The outlying piece of realmslore on Wulgreth comes from the Netheril boxed
set. An arcanist named Wulgreth is enveloped by a glob of 'heavy magic' that
Karsus tipped off of his enclave's edge, and transformed into a lich. Now I
remember having a discussion on this List last year about whether this Wulgreth
was the same one as the Ascalhorn/Dire Wood Wulgreth. I think it was meant to
be, but that Slade just really didn't have his thinking cap on when he wrote
him up. Simply put I found it difficult to reconcile the fact that Wulgreth
became a lich prior to the fall of Netheril (i.e. before the Year of Sundered
Webs -339 DR), traveled to Ascalhorn (an enclave of the Eaerlanni elves, powerful
in magic themselves, and probably not too keen on having a lich in their midst),
WAITED about a thousand years or so (this is the bit I have trouble with) and
then decided to start summoning devils to take control of the city etc., etc.

As someone suggested at the time of the previous discussion, the best explanation
is that there were TWO Wulgreths (perhaps the latter one is a descendant of
the first): the first is the one mentioned in the Netheril boxed set (fate unknown),
and the second is the one that helped to create Hellgate Keep. Now I stress
that this answer isn't in any way perfect/totally acceptable/proof to criticism
- but hell, it's the best I can do!:)

Tim responded with:

Let's see; we have an ancient Wulgreth and a fairly modern day Wulgreth. He's
a lich, so long life isn't a real factor here. I propose that the ancient Wulgreth
had been imprisoned somehow. The elves weren't too happy with his presence.
Let's say the elves did take action against him. Only, instead of destroying
him, they trapped him. Now, after so many years, I would think he would have
mutated into a demi-lich so the entrapment must have involved some type of stasis.
Eventually, he got free (no doubt thanks to some treasure seeking adventurers).
Anyway, that would give a reason why he exists in two different time periods
and why he waited so long to start doing that lich-hobby of summoning demons.
And, now there's some Realmslore we haven't heard about him (like how was he
imprisoned and who freed him). How's that? I also want the disclaimer that
this isn't perfect/totally acceptable/proof to criticism :)

Jeff Bray had the final say with:

Yep. I remember this discussion and I asked Steven Schend about it after Hellgate
Keep came out. I figured that he would have reconciled it. As it turned out,
he overlooked it and had no definitive answer off the cuff. Not his fault,
I might add. slade botched this one royally, IMO.

(In discussing the possibility of 2 Wulgreth's Jeff responded)

Maybe it was I. That's how I reconciled the facts myself. Another reason
is that Clayton Emery's Netheril trilogy has Wulgreth in it. Now, in the novel,
Wulgreth is undead and got that way from heavy magic a la Netheril box. Here
is why I think there were 2: The lich in the novel is a large, bestial creature
that uses physical strength to bully/terrorize others. I can't imagine that
this creature as portrayed would evolve into something slick enough to be the
catalyst of the fall of Ascalhorn. Also, how could he be a lich in a place
crawling with many powerful beings that might've taken offense to an undead
in their midst? This would be before the summoning of devils, and them bringing
the knowldge of lichdom with them. See also George's comment about the time
discrepancy between the 2 events. I think the second one (of Ascalhorn fame)
found out about Karse and headed there at some point after setting of the chain
reaction. I have him leaving before the demons came so to outside Ascalhorn
when it fell (for whatever reason). Whether he used the devil-controlled method
of lichdom or an independent method, is unclear to me. The fact that 2 guys
with the same name are involved with Karsus is in my book, a coincidence.

As before, there is no definitive answer to this question, despite the fact
that some are SURE that they are one and the same. Hmm, looks like we'll have
to just wait for the definitive answer to pop up somewhere - if it ever does.

4.12. Who/what is/was Larloch?

According to Ed Greenwood:

Larloch is a onetime Netherese sorcerer (still possessed of a lot of Netherese
scepters, which he knows how to make) who is now a quite insane "ultra-lich"
(in this case, the term means he has many unknown powers which are up to you
the DM, among them the fact that he can still learn and develop new spells,
increase in levels, etc.). He's probably a 46th level evil-aligned wizard right
now, and he crafted many of his own undead abilities prior to undeath, which
argues that he found his own 'process' for achieving lichdom.

Larloch is served by many (60+ ?) liches, formerly archwizards, whom he guides
in concert, as the leader of a telepathic-web 'Overmind.' Thus far, neither
psionics nor mind-influencing magics have ever been effective against him or
any of his servitor mages, because the others in the link can withstand and
overcome such influences, causing them to fail.

In theory, an attack could reach all of them through the link, but some quite
powerful Red Wizards have tried and failed (Szass Tam didn't try such an attack,
which may be why he survived...he remains fearful of approaching Larloch and
his mages, but fascinated by the details of their lichdom, hoping it might yield
him some powers.)

One of Larloch's given-to-himself powers (which - in a long, involved, and
secret, personally-developed process - cost him 10 years of life and some vitality,
irrelevant of course given his goal of lichdom) is automatic spell reflection
(of all magic cast upon him). He can by act of will override this ability, for
example when he wants to work a spell on himself; otherwise, it always operates.

Mystra (Midnight's predecessor as the goddess) is said to have allowed Larloch
to acquire powers approaching those of "old Netheril" in return for
'leaking' spells to persistent adventurers he or his minions might come into
contact with, but this may be no more than rumour spread by the Zhents or Red
Wizards or Dragon Cultists, designed to lure adventurers into Larloch-weakening
forays...

As for Larloch knowing the identities and locations of other liches/Netherese
survivors...no, only the one's he's destroyed. Larloch is too self-centered
to hunt down folks who don't come within his easy reach. He controls plenty
of archwizards/liches already, but may decide to try to either control or destroy
a new one when they come into contact. He seems to be pursuing other goals,
however. Which ones? That's up to each DM....."

Larloch and his lich minions have no interest in attracting attention that
would waste their time and magical resources (and perhaps, if word got around
how dangerous they were, even threaten their existence in the face of a concerted
attack from various magical power groups working together). Larloch is not interested
in ruling Faerun...but he IS interested in creating and controlling a series
of magical gates linking many worlds (parallel Prime Material Planes) and Outer
Planes...and so rigging their enchantments that anyone using them comes under
his control/faces his forceful removal of their magic items, information from
their mind, and so forth. The gates are easy for him to create (he licked all
of those problems long ago). The control enchantments have been giving him troubles
for thousands of years now, and as an obsessive perfectionist, he isn't going
to let this rest until he gets everything just so...nor is he going to create
the gates until he's ready to put the controls on them.

In short, he's a munchkin only if played that way. All Player Characters have
to learn sometime that there are folks in the Realms just too powerful to tangle
with. I'm reminded of the original Realms campaign, and the Company of Crazed
Venturers attacking Shaan the Serpent-Queen (who briefly appeared in a Wizards
Three DRAGON article). She was busy working magic on a small island off Mintarn.
They attacked, broke her concentration, and she looked up with an irritated
frown. They bid her stop, or they'd destroy what she was working on; to demonstrate,
one of the Company mages touched (and disintegrated) a stone he was standing
beside.

She shook her head in derision, and touched the island beneath them, disintegrating
IT, and dumping the Company into the chilly sea waves for a long swim...whilst
she turned back to her spellcasting, floating on nothing and ignoring them once
more.

A heavy-handed lesson, but...well, Larloch's in the same league, and more.
Just consider him a power of the Realms and Don't Go There.

4.13. What ever happened to Lashan?

According to Ed Greenwood:

Lashan's in stasis, entombed in rock, deep beneath the Underdark. He's also
in larva (as in the Lower Planar creature) form, and rendered forever mindless...thus,
as Lashan, he was "destroyed." (Heeeheee! You should have seen the
faces of the my players when their persistent enquiries led them to THAT calmly-related
information!) P.S. Now is as good a time as any to remind folks on the list
that TSR editors often change our wording...I never wrote "destroyed"
re. Lashan, because in my original, some of his men were still wandering around
the School, blades out, to bump into PCs at exactly the wrong times...(heh-heh)...

4.14. The elves

4.14.1. What’s
the status of Evermeet’s royal family? What happened to the children of Zaor
and Amlaruil?

Elaine Cunningham tells us:

One of Evermeet's mysteries and tragedies concerns the Lost Children. Many
of the offspring of Zaor and Amlaruil have died, but the fate of several of
the princes and princesses has not yet been determined.

The royal issue, and their current status, follows in order of birth.

The body of Ilyrana, the first born, a priestess, currently lies in deep stasis
in Moonflower Castle, and her spirit abides in Arvandor. During battle she
acted in some mysterious, hard-to-define way as an avatar focus for the goddesses
she served, and the result was a titanic battle maid comprising her spirit as
well as power borrowed from the elven gods. It is unlikely, but not absolutely
impossible, that she will return to Evermeet. Even before her sacrifice, she
was not at all eager to take the throne.

Xharlion and Zhoron, twin sons. They are mirror images of each other and their
father, the king. The rowdy, robust elven lads seemed destined for the warrior's
life. The queen sent them to the Moonshaes for fosterage among the elves of
Sonoria. One of them--it is not certain which one—was slain when the Ityak-Ortheel
attacked the Moonshaes. It is not known if the other survived, or if so, what
became of him.

Chozzaster, the next-born son, became a High Mage. He passed on to Arvandor
at a young age, not because of illness or accident, but simply because the call
of the ultimate elven homeland was too strong for him to resist.

Shandalar became a bladesinger, trained in the art by bladesinger Shanyrria
Alenuath. She was "accidentally" killed by a fellow student, a spell-singer,
during a training drill. It is not certain whether Shanyrria, her mentor, survived.
If so, the bladesinger will be eager to avenge the death of this princess, her
student and namesake.

Tira-allara and Hhora were female twins, both devoted to the service of Hanali
Celanil. Both were excessively devoted to the cult of love, and each in her
own way met the fate of those who love not well, but immoderately and unwisely.
Tira-alara became involved with a rogue who used her wealth and position, then
broke her heart. Elves are capable of wishing themselves dead, but few take
this grim option. The princess was an exception, and she literally died of
grief. Hhora left Evermeet determined to wed a commoner she met and loved during
a seasonal festival. Perhaps she found her love, perhaps not. She disappeared
into the High Forest, and no one has been able to learn what became of her.

Another set of female twins, Lazziar and Genstarzah, both trained as warriors
and served as diplomats to mainland elves. They were lost at sea, and their
fate has never been established.

Amnestria was a battle mage, and King Zaor's favorite child. She was betrothed
to Elaith Craulnober, a distant kinsman who served as captain of the King's
Guard. When Elaith broke with her over a personal disgrace, she followed him
to the mainland--and fell in love with his human friend, Bran Skorlsun. In
secret she gave birth to Elaith's son, and hid the child in secret fosterage.
She later bore a girlchild to Bran, but she was slain before she could train
her daughter in the secrets of the moonblade she would inherit. This half-elven
child, Arilyn, was able to claim the sword--the first person of mixed blood
ever to do so.

Lamruil, the youngest son, has been an adventurer for years. He was not widely
liked by the nobles of Evermeet, considered too young and frivolous to rule,
but he held the throne briefly following the sacrifice of Amlaruil. He happily
abdicated the throne back to his mother, and undertook the task of planting
the Tree of Souls on the mainland. He has chosen a hidden valley far to the
north, a place surrounded by incredibly inhospitable terrain. He will be kept
very busy recruiting a following, subduing the land, and establishing the colony.
His consort, a mostly-human woman named Maura, will probably prove to be equal
parts help and hindrance. It is unlikely that their children will succeed him
as ruler. Maura is a teenager, but she is also impulsive, a warrior, and a
human. None of those things lend to an impressive life expectancy. It is likely
that the elves tolerate her, believing that they can put up with her for a human's
relatively short span. Lamruil will undoubtedly be urged to take an elven consort
and produce suitable heirs--either before or after Maura's death.

Or perhaps another form of government, one not based on monarchy or hereditary
nobility, will evolve. One thing is certain: Lamruil will return to Evermeet
to rule only if he feels the island has no other acceptible options. He would
gladly throw his support behind a likely candidate for the throne. Like most
of Toril's elves, however, he hopes that the end of Queen Amlaruil's reign will
be very long in coming.

4.14.2. What elven subraces exist
in the Realms?

Eric Boyd:

The elven subraces of Faerun are known by a variety of names, listed below
in decreasing order of "correctness." Those in parentheses are known
to be insulting.

Note that Cha'Tel'Quessir technically only refers to the half-elves of Aglarond.

4.14.3. What's the population breakdown
of the elven subraces in the Realms? Which are most common?

Eric Boyd:

In terms of population, the Avariel and the Lythari are by far the rarest.
While there are many half-elves, only a small population dwell in the Yuirwood.
Sea elves and green elves seem reasonably common. Moon elves are somewhat rare,
but most likely to be seen in human settlements, so they seem more prevalent
than they really are. Gold elves are quite rare. Drow are rare on the surface,
but there are large numbers of them dwelling in the Underdark.

4.14.4. What's known about Avariel
in the Realms?

Tom Costa tells us:

Avariel, winged elves, originally detailed in Dragon Magazine back in the double
digits, are found in the Realms. They have since been detailed in Elves of
Evermeet, one of the Monstrous Manual annuals, and last and most important,
Demihumans of the Realms.

Evermeet is supposedly in talks to open up the island to some avariel, however
there are currently few to none there officially. The only known place with
avariel officially is the frozen kingdom of Sossal just east of the Great Glacier
and north of Narfell.

4.15. Cormyr

4.15.1. What is the rank structure
of the Purple Dragons?

According to Ed Greenwood:

The Purples used ranks similar, but not identical, to the military ranks in
use in Cormyr (and Sembia, though be warned that ranks in that land vary wildly
because of private patrons bestowing whatever titles they like, from "Sword-Dog"
to "Exalted Whirlwind of Might," these two examples both being given
to common footsoldiers).

In short, Purple ranks ascend, from lowest to highest, as follows (modern-world
VERY rough equivalents given in brackets):

Blade (soldier/private)

Swordcaptain (sergeant)

Lionar (lieutenant)

Ornrion (major)

Constal (colonel)

Oversword (general, force leader)

Another title in later and current use:

Swordlord (for unit commander; where this falls in the hierarchy varies
with the size of the unit, from patrol to army)

...with bigwigs who sometimes never fought giving themselves "High Oversword"
and similar honorifics. (The bigwigs were senior nobles and sometimes war wizards
given military command for an undertaking.) Please be aware that these titles
were also changed at the whim of the leaders, so DMs are quite safe in having
a few 'weirdo/don't match these' titles in their games.

In more recent times, the overall leader of a large force, if he or she customarily
did such things, is known in Cormyr as a "battlemaster" (modern Americans
might say "five-star general"). There IS one War Wizard rank: "alarphon."
An Alarphon is an internal War Wizards investigator (sort of like a military
policeman), allowed to ask probing questions of everyone (Azoun and Filfaeril
can tell him certain answers just won't be forthcoming, but everyone else is
supposed to furnish him with the full truth).

*4.15.2. Who are the nobles of Cormyr?

George Krashos explains:

Without stealing Bryon Wischstadt's thunder, here is a list of noble families
of Cormyr he cobbled up a while back for a project. I note that the list is
incomplete, as there are a few extant sources on Cormyr (notably the novel "Stormlight")
which also add to this list. Even so, here it is, thanks to Bryon:

The Emerald Enclave are a group of people dedicated to making sure that the
lands remain strong and pristine. Think of them as Greenpeace with an attitude
(and spells, magical items, and powerful people backing them). You can find
out more about them by reading through the Vilhon Reach (written by some two-bit
hack!)

The Seven Sisters were around in the Realms from the very beginning (1967),
though at first I knew only that there were a large number of silver-haired,
tall, powerful, beautiful she-siblings...the number didn't climb to seven until
around 1978, and I deliberately left the seventh slot 'vacant,' as a 'loose
end' for either TSR or individual DMs to fill in (by the way, folks: to DMs
contemplating campaigns designed for longevity, continually building in 'loose
ends' is a crucial design element; TSR has been building mine and their own
added ones into complete products for some years, and such good scribes as Eric,
George, Grant, and the Bryans have been give headaches aplenty in reconciling
them). In this case, I had it in the back of my head that the last and youngest
would be something of a 'black sheep' (I was thinking 'tomboy') and so wrote
that "the seventh was a dark disaster."

Steven pounced on that, and the name and race of Qilue are his creation (leaving
me with the 'how did THAT happen?' explanation to do in THE SEVEN SISTERS :}).
I think it's a great touch--just another example of how the Realms benefits
by the inspired efforts of lots of creators, rather than just one. Steven deserves
to take more than a few hard-earned bows for his sensitive and thoughtful work
in the Realms...and I hereby salute him once more! Slonshal!

4.18. Khelben

4.18.1 .It says in the Shadow Thieves'
write up that Khelben's mother had something to do with running them out of
Waterdeep not so many years ago (13xx DR). Isn't he older than that?

Steven Schend explained:

As far as the city and the Realms at large is concerned, Khelben the Blackstaff's
mother is Lhestyn, the Lord who drove them out of the city. She was the stepmother
of Cassandra (Arunsun) Thann and Khelben now poses as her son. Lhestyn was actually
the wife of his youngest son (Zelphar).

4.18.2. Huh? Khelben confuses me!

Us too!!!

AJA tries to explain:

To clear all that up a bit, Lhestyn married Zelphar Arunsun, the eldest (acknowledged)
son of Khelben the Elder (who we know as Blackstaff today). Lhestyn and Zelphar
had a son, Khelben the Younger (whose identity Khel the Elder has since appropriated).
Khelben the Younger now dwells in Greyhawk.

4.18.3. Does anyone in Faerun know
that Khelben's not who everyone thinks he is?

Steven Schend (who's convinced no one can ever truly know Khelben until he
truly knows and accepts himself, and he's not ready to do that even after nine
centuries) tells us:

Actually, from my perspective, ONLY Danilo knows/understands that Khelben is
not who he poses as. Cassandra is not all that close to her half-brother, and
his training as a mage kept him even more at arms' length as it was something
he shared with their father that she couldn't. As far as Cassandra's concerned
(though Elaine may have another interpretation of this, which is to be considered
canonical as Cassandra's her character), Khelben is her little brother who acts
all the more mysterious because of the powers he wields.....

Of others in Waterdeep, here're my guesses as to who knows he's not who he
poses as (though they may not know exactly who he is): Kyriani (Agrivar), Mirt
the Moneylender, Kitten, a few elves whose names escape me now, Maskar Wands
(who actually may know the truth), Maaril & Hlanta Melshimber (both of whom
suspect but know very little), and a smattering of others.

Of all the beings in the Realms, only Elminster and Laeral know more than 35%
of Khelben's story, and only Laeral is privy to more than that......

4.19. Who are the hin?

Eric Boyd answers:

Technically, the term "hin" only applies to halflings of the Calishite
diaspora, although it is gradually becoming applied to all halflings.

Specifically, the hin are those halflings who fled the land we now know as
Calimshan over the centuries, gradually moving up the Sword Coast. Major settlements
resulting from this migration include the Purple Hills of Tethyr, the lands
of fallen Mieritin (in east central Amn), Corm Orp and vicinity, and Secomber
and vicinity.

The hin do include hairfeet, tallfellows, and stouts, with the latter two containing
traces of elvish blood (from their distant ancestors breeding with the elves
of Keltormir) and dwarvish blood (from their distant ancestors breeding with
the dwarves of High Shanatar).

The Calishite migration of the hin is NOT enough to account for the presence
of all halflings in the Realms, so presumably there are other migration points
as well. (Moreover, those migrations must have also resulted in interbreeding
with dwarves and elves, as tallfellows and stouts are evenly mixed into all
populations of halflings across Faerun.) Despite the claims of some well-known
halflings (i.e. Olive Ruskettle) that the entire race originates from Luiren,
this is incorrect.

More details on the hin may be found in Demihuman Deities, in Empires of the
Shining Sea, and in a recent "New Adventures of Volo" column in Dragon.

4.20. Any thoughts as to which
Twisted Rune member is a phaerimm?

Eric Boyd:

I thought about this, but didn't end up including the reference in DDGttU.
For the curious, there's a stray reference in the original write-up of the Twisted
Rune (TR) in Code of the Harpers that suggests that one of the Runemasters is
a phaerimm. Since the TR is all undead sorcerers, this suggests that there is
at least one undead phaerimm in the Realms, and that it lives in the Underdark
beneath Amn/Tethyr/ Calimshan (i.e. Deep Shanatar). I'd like to think that it
is the ONLY undead phaerimm lich in all of the Realms, but perhaps the brain
washing is taking effect. Two possibilities occur to me: (a) The undead phaerimm
is one of the unnamed Runemasters of the TR (Remember that Steven left at least
two holes in the roster for the DM to fill out), or (b) The undead phaerimm
has figured out to create â€œlich puppetsâ€�. Thus one, two, or even
three of the liches serving under the Runemasters (there are many awaiting their
turn to be promoted) are actually puppets of the undead phaerimm.

While I'm speculating about the remaining Runemasters, I might throw out Galadaster
as an option ... see Pages from the Mages, Galadaster's Orizon. When I asked
Steven, he said that he didn't include him so that not EVERY lich we knew about
in the South was a member of the TR. However, he's certainly a viable candidate
(or foe ...).

I'll also point out that at this point we know of 41 phaerimm outside the boundaries
erected by the sharn. According to RoMD, 40 of them made their way to the ruins
of Myth Drannor. According to DDGttU, 3 of those 40 now reside in Ooltul. According
to CotH, thereâ€™s one (the undead phaerimm mentioned above) in the TR.

4.21. Who's Ilserv? Is he stone?
Is he dead? Is he smashed?

On page 45 of Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark there is an illithid
(Ilserv ) who is mentioned as once having been petrified by Xanathar and kept
in Mirt's garden. He was later returned to flesh. This illithid is the one who
was petrified in the AD&D comic series #12.

A contradictory reference, however has the Statue/petrified illithid destroyed
(or rather smashed into a lot of small pieces) in the Forgotten Realms comic
series Annual 1. This makes the reference (in DDGttU) that it was later returned
to the flesh difficult to understand. After all the chances of Mirt having two
statues of illithids in his garden, both of which were petrified by Xanathar,
is very small at best.

Here's a couple of fixes to the contradiction:

Solution #1) That was the fake statue Mirt kept around because it was always
getting stolen. The real one remained in his garden, permanently invisible.

Solution #2) Mirt predicted the attack and had a temporary statue placed
there briefly.

Solution #3) It was the real Ilserv, but Mirt had a wizard put it back together
for him, so upset was he to lose such an interesting conversation piece.

*4.22. Who's wrote the Nether Scrolls,
the elves or the Creator races?

Steven Schend explains:

The Creator races are way older than Aryvandaar. The creator races reach back
several thousand years before that, I believe. Some brief info is available
in the REF5 Lords of Darkness accessory that details an ancient lizard man-type
creator race mummy (I think he was a mummy, I don't recall.) There were other
creator races as well; check out Eric Boyd's introduction to Powers & Pantheons.

Also, check out the Nether Scroll novel; it has some bits on the Nether Scroll
(aptly named novel, eh?) and it's a good and quick read, IMHO.

I went with the idea that the elves of Aryvandaar had found and studied the
lore of the Creator Races, whatever that might be. The Nether Scrolls definitely
predate even the great civilizations of the elves, as noted by Rob. Still, since
I built in the origins of human magecraft via elven training and then the break
from that with the discovery of the NS and abuse of the same, I figured they
had to have found them via some elven knowledge or study as well. <shrug>

Ron Chronister inquired further:

Unlike the elves, however, the humans did not take a long term careful "magically
environmental" approach to the study of magic, and completely screwed up
in the end (like giving machineguns to a bunch of 4 year olds...). They then
had to crawl back to the elves after the fall of Netheril in order to learn
the proper use of magic.

Am I starting to make sense? was that your original line of thought?

And Steve Schend replied:

BINGO!

After all, if humanity were ready for the kinds of magics they chose to wield,
the Realms would still be home to the empires of Netheril, the Imaskari, and
the Shoon........ Don't mess around with magic unless you're ready for magic
to mess around with you....THAT'S the primary message I kept in mind with respect
to the Nether Scrolls and all the fallen magical empires of the past....

*4.23. What's a Waterdhavian?

Ed Greenwood tells us:

"ahaeva" in Auld Common (early human trade tongue) meant 'I am from'
or 'I make my home at' or even 'I make my home here/this is my home'...thus,
a person from Waterdeep (an early trademoot of the North, remember), is a "Waterdhavian."
Clumsy, but better than "Waterdeepian."

*4.24. What about the Phaerimm?

Ed Greenwood tells us:

Oh, another thing: on the topic of the Phaerimm: yes, I presented them originally
(without enough space to do either them or the Sharn justice) as "so dang
powerful that cocky PCs had BETTER be scared...or swiftly dead." Remember
earlier on, when I posted to the list about "thinking Realms"? Okay,
let's do this again: my awful-bad Phaerimm were the mean dudes in Myth Drannor.
The 'lesser' specimens of the scaleable 3E version your PCs may now meet with
are some of the less powerful Phaerimm released from long-term imprisonment
(how? why? soon to be revealed). You never got the chance to see these weaker
ones before now...okay?

Editor's Note: See the Return of the Archmages novels to see what Ed was hinting
at?

*4.25. Who are the Shades?

A group of Netherese who escaped the demiplane of Shadow before Netheril fell.
They've returned to the prime and are making their home in Anauroch. See the
Return of the Archmages novels for more info.

*4.26. Why's Halaster so powerful?
In third edition you can't progress above 20th level, so how's he
more powerful than any other 20th level mage? The same applies to
lots of other NPCs, too?

We'll use Halster as an example:

Halaster has taken some Epic levels. These Epic Levels allow abilities and
spell progression beyond the base PHB rules.

For example, the FRCS has the following spell progressions:

Halaster: 4 6 6 6 6 5 5 2 4 3

Elminster: 4 6 6 6 5 4 5 3 3 3

Wiz20: Int 24: 4 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 4

The Archmage prestige class sacrifices spell slot for special abilities. For
example, the Arcane Reach ability Elminster has costs him a 7th level spell
slot. So does Mastery of counterspelling. Mastery of Elements costs an 8th
level slot, Spell Power +1 costs a 5th level slot, and Spell Power +3 costs
a 9th level slot. Voilá, there we get Elminster's actual spell progression.

The Avatar Trilogy takes place between Kythorn 1 and Marpenoth 15, according
to the FR Atlas (not the CD-Rom, the OOP printed supplement). The actual date
of the Fall of the Gods was in the early evening of Kythorn 15. This date is
mentioned in both the old FR atlas and the Shadows of the Avatar trilogy. Helm
destroys Mystra on Midsummer, Bane and the Celestial Stairway are destroyed
on Flamerule 18, Myrkul brings back Bane into Fzoul on Flamerule 25, Bane and
Torm destroy each other on Eleasias 13, Cyric slays Bhaal on Eleint 26, and
Myrkul dies on Marpenoth 15 upon which time Midnight and Cyric ascend.

5.2. On
what years does Shieldmeet fall?

Brian Rodgers did the math:

In "recent" times, there would have been Shieldmeets in the years
of 1348, 1352, 1356, 1360, 1364, 1368 and 1372 DR.

Jason Hatter confirmed:

Yup, that is correct. IIRC, the novel Elfsong occurs in 1364, during Shieldmeet.
There is also a reference in the City of Splendors timeline, IIRC.

5.3. What were The Spawn Wars?

Eric Boyd:

The Spawn Wars have not been mentioned elsewhere, but you should be able to
piece together bits of information from DDGttU, particularly from the write-up
of Iltkazar.

The quick explanation:

There was a time before "Shanatar" was established when Alatorin
was in the hands of the drow and the other dwarven subkingdoms warred amongst
themselves. In those days, the dwarven gods were each associated with a particular
clan. The Spawn Wars saw the use of deepspawn to produce vast numbers of dwarven
troops quickly, who were then hurled into battle against each other. Eventually,
the dwarven kingdoms abandoned their internecine strife and came together, although
not all the deepspawn were destroyed. It should be noted that the Spawned (as
they were called) were treated as second-class citizens at best and banned from
breeding. However, a few did, and some suspect that a taint of weakness was
introduced into the dwarven race in this fashion that now contributes to the
declining birth rate.

Deepspawn were first detailed in FR11 - Dwarves Deep, but they have since appeared
in other sources. (Definitely in one of the MC Annuals, and I believe in another
Realms product as well.)

A major infestation of deepspawn was found in The Beast Marches, NW of Myth
Drannor. This tidbit appeared long ago in Polyhedron or LC2 (can't recall which).
It was developed in "Fall of Myth Drannor". See the timeline and causes
of the fall in that module.

Other deepspawn that have appeared in the Realms include:

a) one under Zazesspur (see War in Tethyr where it was named)
b) one under Hellgate Keep (see the module)
c) one under Iltkazar (see DDGttU)
d) one under the Shipwreck Plains (see Wyrmskull Throne)

Ed and Steven tend to include a lot of throwaway references to deepspawn appearing
all over the place as well. A good way to think of them is sort of like solitary
beholders ... they're strong enough to establish themselves at the top of the
local food chain and be a major player in a region.

No names are given for the years 382 and 548. Also year -681 is given two names.
Year of Nightmares is given in the correct place (on the list) and year of Eternal
Amber is given on a line between -502 and -503. The missing Years have already
been spotted, and will be included

in the new Roll on the WotC website (if its ever updated). The Year of

Eternal Amber was moved to -645DR. The others are;

382/Year of Steel Roses

548/Year of the Eloene Bride

722/Year of the Last Hunt

977/Year of Swordforging

For Years with more than one name, the one not on the Roll is considered a
regional variant; the one on the Roll is the "official" one (at least
as far as the scribes at Candlekeep and the authors at TSR are concerned :)

5.4.2. How were the beginning (-700
DR) and ending (1600 DR) years for the Roll of Years chosen?

Tom Costa replied: As one of the namers, here are some answers.....

This was for the most part an arbitrary decision based on part on making sure
we covered dates that covered all the years from Alaundo and Auguthra the Mad's
prophecies. However, we came up with more names than originally expected and
so Steven added more named years to the rolls. It was a lot of names to come
up with and I think all of us were pretty proud of the result. In the end,
I believe the ultimate goal was to cover a period far back in history for creators
and players to be able to use year names and far enough in the future to cover
anticipated future events and products (which 200+ years should aptly cover
I believe).

Steven Schend added:

Why did we stop at -700 and 1600? Well, two reasons. A) 2300 years names is
more than enough grist for the creative mills of DMs out there. and B) If we
added more at either end of that spectrum, they're either so far before or after
current campaigns that they're less and less useful.

5.4.3. Some groups of years seem connected-
namely 1468 (the First Circle), 1470 (the Second Circle), 1472 (the Third Circle),
1474 (the Fourth Circle), 1476 (the Fifth Circle) and 1478 (the Dark Circle).
Is there a method to the madness?

Tom Costa replied: As one of the namers, here are some answers.....

IIRC, one of us came up with the sequence and Steven liked it. There clearly
is a sequence of events that occur during those years, but I don't think it
was defined by any of us or in any products.

Steven Schend added:

Yes. >:D <Ain't I a stinker?

5.5. When was the Horde?

Thomas M. Costa tells us:

FR12 Horde Campaign is set up like those battle campaign books, describing
major battles and how they went, including photos of typical combatants and
Battle System statistics.

A favorite sport of the Realms list is "casting" a Realms movie,
arguing over who would play Elminster, Drizzt, Storm, and so forth. While this
may be fun for the people who haven't been through it before, most of the list
is heartily sick of the whole topic. Be thou forewarned.

At GenCon '95, I asked Ed Greenwood about the days of the week (Ride) in Faerun.
I asked if there was a standard day or day name for the days of the ride. He
responded that the days of the ride differ from geographic region to region,
and usually have a religious connotation. There is no standard set of day names.

Ed went on to say that the people of Faerun use the number of days to indicate
when something will happen as long as the number of days does not exceed 30.
For instance, if I was to see you in 10 days, I would say "See you in a
ten-day," not "See you in a ride" or "See you next ride,"
both of which are not as determinalistic as the first statement.

If you want to indicate an event in the future of past and this event happens
within 10 days of a major event, a Realmsian would say "Bessie had her
calf 3 days after the Lord came into his castle." or "Bessie's calf
was born 2 days before last Greengrass."

In other words, Realmsians do not use dates like we do -- my birthday in Faerun
is something like "12 days after Greengrass" not "Mirtul 12th."
Now IMC, I use "Firstday," "Seconday", "Thirday",
etc. for my days of the week, and I use dates like Americans do. Why? Well,
to be blunt, my players don't want to try to understand the FR method of dating.
So it is usually easier just to give in on this minor point. However, if you
write fiction, you might want to follow these rules.

6.3. Is
there gunpowder in the Realms?

[Thanks to Paul Hoyak for this answer.]

Gunpowder does not exist in the Realms - however, the magical item known as
"smokepowder" does. It is fairly rare, as are firearms, but not as
rare as they were before the Time of Troubles (FRA gives a good timeline for
how guns develop in the Realms).

Also, the increase in spelljamming will also allow for more firearms and smokepowder
in the Realms.

Those who are likely to have firearms mostly include pirates, bandits and brigands
(who have really no idea how to use these "things" and have next to
no smokepowder), and the odd city guard captain!

Note that only the firearms found in FRA are in the Realms - the guns in Combat
& Tactics are NOT in the Realms as these are FAR too advanced for the Realms
current time.

Smokepowder can still be found in Waterdeep, fairly easily too.

It's only a myth that Gond created smokepowder for the Realms – but that's
not to say that it's not true!

6.4. Was there really a Forgotten
Realms Comic?

There was both an AD&D Comic (36 issues or so) and a FR Comic (25 issues
or so) with some crossover annuals. Both took place in the Realms around the
time of the Godswar, 1357-1359 DR.

Dragon 247 and 260 both contained stories about most of the characters from
those comics (by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak) 10 or so years after the original
comic stories. Their AD&D stats also appeared in I believe those two issues
of Dragon. Some of the characters also appeared in the Lost Gods trilogy of
novels and played an important role in the ascension of Zaranda Star in Tethyr
(see Lands of Intrigue). You can also find info about one of the characters
in the write-up of Labelas in Demihuman Deities and the Temple of Selune write-up
in Powers and Pantheons.

6.5. Have
"official game" versions of the artifacts from the FR comic books
(the hand of Vaprak, etc.) been published? I thought they might be included
in "Volo's Guide to All Things Magical" but I don't think they were.

Eric Boyd tells us:

The short answer is no.

There wasn't room in VGtATM to detail all the artifacts named in the comic
series, so I could only detail every other artifact mentioned in a Realms product
up until that point If you don't have access to the comics (which most people
don't), I did name all the artifacts mentioned in the comic books in the intro
to the artifacts chapter. Since most of the artifacts were reeled off in a shouting
match between Omen and Elminster, and we know NOTHING about them at all, they
are left wholly up to the DM to detail. IIRC, the Hand of Vaprak and the Moonpenguin
of Boof were really the only "featured" artifacts of the various Realms
comics, and the comics revealed much of their powers during the course of the
stories they were involved in.

6.6. Is there a particular order in which the Realms novels
(particularly the Harpers series) should be read?

Eric Boyd explained:

You want to read "Elfshadow" then "Elfsong" then "Silver
Shadows" then "Thornhold" then "The Dream Spheres".

You want to read "Spellfire" before "Crown of Fire."
(The former is not technically a Harper book, but I would call it "Harpers
#0".)

You want to read "Azure Bonds", then "The Wyvern's Spur"
then "Song of the Saurials" then "Masquerades".

You want to read "Crypt of the Shadowking" before "Curse of
the Shadowmage."

You want to read "The Parched Sea" before "The Veiled Dragon."

You want to read "Finder's Bane" then a Dragonlance book whose
name I can't recall and then "Tymora's Luck."

In other words, make sure to read all the books by the same author in order.

6.7. What's up with the runes used
on the top of the FR logo? Are they Dethek?

Brian D. Gute knew:

The runes used on the top of the FR logo are not Dethek. They are the "Common
Tongue Runes" introduced in Dragon #69 in the article "Runes"
by Phil Taterczynski and Roger Raupp. The runes on the Forgotten Realms logo
spell out the phrase: Herein lie the lost lands

Just to make matters more confusing, an article entitled "Runestones"
by Ed Greenwood in which he introduced Dethek runes appears on the same page
as the "Common Tongue Runes" alphabet from the "Runes" article.

6.8. I heard that Ed Greenwood has
a hotmail email address and that he posted some top-secret info on an Amazon.com
webpage. Is it true?

Ed himself replies:

"Please spread the word to the list: the posting on Amazon is a fraud
by someone else purporting to be me, and I'm asking them to remove it... If
you folks would like to ask them to, too, maybe then can get rid of it!

Just to amplify:

I'm not and never have been "Edwin Greenwood," I've never had a hotmail
address, and on the date upon which this "author" comment was posted,
I was strapped to a table in a Toronto hospital, undergoing heart surgery! With
all of that said, I'm always happy to chat about any of my Realms work, though
I can't promise all sorts of secrets a la the Amazon posting..."

6.9. Is there any information on
heraldry in the Realms?

First this disclaimer concerning heraldry by Ed Greenwood:

The important thing to remember is that real-world heraldry was very untidy
and inconsistent (still is, in many ways), and coherent rules came along late
in the game...so if you consider Realms heraldry to be like 'old' real-world
heraldry, with local heralds memorizing everyone's charges but the only 'hard'
rule really being no duplication of arms within the same realm, and no use of
royal arms by anyone unauthorized, anywhere, you've got it. Those who really
want to follow established real-world blazonry are reminded that America ignores
most of the European rules anyway, and that in both main systems, corporations
are allowed to break almost all the rules if they pay enough :} (just like
the Realms!

Herewith, details of the arms of the Dales (a modern real-world herald would
probably consider these, by their construction and everyday Dales usage, as
'badges'):

Archendale: "the star and broken crown" (star white with
silver points, crown segments of gold, field is scarlet or, in older depictions,
crimson; if as a pennant, field has a dagged silver border)

Battledale: "the mace, broken spear, and chain" (black mace,
brown spear with steel [=dull silver] point, bright silver chain, all on a
field of scarlet; if as a pennant, field has a dagged purple border)

Daggerdale: "the ring and dagger" (has changed over the
years, being at one time gold ring, gold dagger with an emerald snake-eye
and a scarlet forked tongue, all on a lush green field, but nowadays usually
ring and dagger both of a single pewter [=dull silver] hue, on a royal blue
field; as Merrydale, this region's badge was "the holly ring;" a
circle of nine red holly berries on a leaf-green field, the field always being
round, and bordered in blue)

Deepingdale: "the three coins" (usually silver top left,
gold lower center, copper upper right, but sometimes in the past they've been
all gold or all silver-but in any case, always on a field of forest green;
note that although the Grand Tour book depicts three coins in a level row,
overlapping from the right and with the largest coin in the center, this usage
is old and seldom seen: usually the coins are arranged like a Mickey Mouse-head
silhouette [sorry for the image, folks], with two equal-sized coins at upper
right and upper left both overlapping a lower, larger central coin-and the
coins always have abstract, unreadable decorations on them of mounted men
and lettering and crowns and the like, left to the artist but never to exactly
depict anyone's coinage-although Sembian artists slyly duplicate their own
coins, to assert their claim to 'owning the dales'-and never to all be the
same, because they're supposed to represent the coins of many places, spent
in the dale in appreciation of its craftwork)

Featherdale: "the river, moon, and feather" (a black feather,
usually said to be that of a 'black falcon,' though Sembians always say it's
a crow, in front of a white crescent moon [it just LOOKS like a circle :}]
with edges of silver, and a river of silver running away to the lower right,
always on a deep brown field; if as a pennant, field has a scalloped crimson
border)

Harrowdale: "the sword and manche" (the sword is always
depicted with its blade shaped like the badge that appears in the Grand Tour
book of the 2E Realms boxed set, and is always of gleaming silver-set with
glass shards or mirror glass or spell-sparkle if possible, to make it gleam-with
a crimson grip; the 'manche' [a stylised sleeve, appearing in the arms in
this case to commemorate a long-ago human warrior hacking off one arm of 'an
elven witch' to prevent her spells from blasting him off his chosen ground;
in other words, it grandly depicts a forceful human seizure of the region
from the elves] is always crimson or "blood-red," and the field
is always amber or "flame orange")

The High Dale: "the harp" (the stylized bardic instrument
is said to be a faithful rendering of one played at the Dancing Place, in
720 DR, at the formal founding of the Harpers, and is always depicted in white,
with strings-and the air between them-of vivid [shimmering metallic, whenever
possible] green, on a field of sky blue; if as a pennant, the field has a
border of emerald green separated from the sky blue by thin white piping)

Mistledale: "the blowing horses" (horseheads and the 'bridle'
beneath them are of white, with the vapor of their breath being depicted as
two arrowhead-shapes of gold, with white 'smoke lines' amid them, on a field
of light [almost lime, but a trifle darker] green)

Scardale: "the triumph" (originally scarlet, on a dun [beige]
field, but more recently (last century) has been depicted as cream on a light
[again, almost lime, but a trifle darker] green field; Lashan changed it to
gold on a dark green field, a coloration abandoned at his disappearance)

Moondale: "the moon and stars" (always six five-pointed
stars, arranged in a crescent-arc; the stars and the crescent moon were always
of white, on a royal purple field, but are sometimes seen today adopted as
the arms of various Sembian mercenary guard companies, Sembian merchants,
and independent rangers desiring to refound Moondale, either in a new area
or by wresting it back from Sembia-and in all of these 'modern revivals,'
the coloration is bright silver moon and stars, on a field of midnight black...just
why the new hues have all been adopted isn't known, but some say Harper influences
and others divine meddling for some as-yet-unrevealed purpose)

Sessrendale: "the plough" (always depicted entirely of silver,
wooden handles as well as blade, on a field of deep royal purple; to show
!it with the blade pointing to the left was to advocate the dale's overthrow-a
badge still seen on the breasts of certain merchants' tunics in Archendale
today)

Shadowdale: "the moon and tower" (always a spiral tower
of silver, in front of a crescent moon, on its back, of silver, on a royal
blue field that's always oval, and bordered in silver; if as a pennant, this
badge will appear on a larger, unbordered field of forest green)

Tarkhaldale (Lost Vale): "the staghead" (was always depicted
head-on, and all-eyes and mouth, too-of white, on a field of forest green)

Tasseldale: "the tri-tassel" (tassels of rich gold, on a
field of scarlet; if bordered, the border will be of an inner line of silver,
and an outer of gold)

Teshendale: "the wave" (a kite-shaped lozenge of 'water
blue,' which encloses a field of white, with the wave and lower two-thirds
of the lozenge all being of water blue; if as a pennant, this device is always
placed on a gray field, to denote the mountains from which the dale descends)

From time to time, Dalesfolk have used a 'common' Dales recognition badge,
usually when far from home, but sometimes on the battlefield, and it's always
been a "green branch:" an upright, trident-shaped brown branch that
splits into three 'balanced' [=mirror image] branches, surrounded by an irregular
halo or field of leaf green.

*6.10. Who wrote what in Cloak and
Dagger?

Steven Schend fills us in:

Here's the full breakdown (from someone who knows as he did the breakdown and
initial outlines):

In a previous reply to this very question, Eric Boyd wrote: "In the Realms,
as of F&A, demipowers, lesser powers, intermediate powers, and greater powers
can all grant spells up to 7th level to their priests. This is not the case
according to the generic AD&D rules. The game reasoning is that the lack
of the more powerful spells under the old system discourages players from playing
priests of demipowers and lesser powers because they do not want the severe
limitations on their abilities at higher levels. Since many of the lower power
priests are very cool role-playing wise, allowing all priests to cast all levels
of priest spells encourages diversity among priest PCs."

Julia Martin has also commented on the thread in the past, and (though I can't
find her exact words) argued that since realms powers gain and lose status according
to the number and fervor of their worshippers, there's no problem with all deities,
regardless of power level, granting high-level spells. As an example, Finder,
a demigod with only one priest, can grant her high-level spells. He's not going
to overextend himself, because he simply doesn't have enough priests of high
enough level to request more high level spells than he can grant. Lathander,
on the other hand, has a huge crop of high-level priests requesting high-level
spells, but as a greater power, has the resources to satisfy them all. If you've
got a lot of high level priests requesting high-level spells, you've probably
got a lot of other worshippers, too and are therefore a powerful enough deity
to satisfy your priests' requests.

8.2. How
fast do Realms specialty priests advance?

The official answer in 2nd edition AD&D is that specialty priests
use the druid advancement table (although their XP total does not reset), gaining
a level for every 500,000 XP earned beyond 20th level (5,500,000 XP; note that
FRA has a typo and says 8,500,000 instead; this is *wrong*). Many DMs use the
cleric advancement table instead.

In Demihuman Deities, there is a new optional advancement table for specialty
priests (except druids), crusaders, monks, and shamans.

8.3. Do Realms clerics have major
access to the sun sphere, and minor access to elemental fire and air, traveler,
and war spheres?

Note that this issue is specific to 2nd edition AD&D.

In Faiths & Avatars there are listed spheres for clerics in the FR, but
in new Priest Spell Compendium, vol.1, the spheres for clerics were a bit shortened.
There, clerics were shown to not have major access to the sun sphere, and minor
access to elemental fire and air, traveler, and war spheres. This conflicts
with F&A.

Eric Boyd thought:

I asked Julia Martin her opinion, with which I concur.

Stick with the spheres laid out in F&A.

F&A already cut back cleric access from the statement in the PHB. Also,
I don't have the sources handy to check, but PSC1 might be contingent on the
slight "reorganization" of spheres a la PO:S&M that the Realms
doesn't use.

8.4. How can so many magical items
exist in the realms, given standard AD&D enchanting rules?

From Ed Greenwood himself:

On the feasibility of so many magical items existing, given standard ADnD enchanting
rules: Consider the following answer 'unofficial,' in that a Wizards rules guru
might well answer this differently: Congratulations - you've stumbled onto one
of the 'hidden in plain view' little mysteries of the Realms that's never been
answered in print because we didn't want to inspire a lot of 'rules-lawyer-juggernaut-characters'
who churn out magic items on their own private little assembly lines.In the
original, 'home' Realms campaign, my own players stumbled onto this very point,
and pounced. (They also stumbled upon almost a dozen others that I'm going to
go on being very quiet about until you notice THEM, too!).

After crowing about catching the DM in a rules quandary (over much green tea,
incredibly rich homemade chip-dip with which I probably caused my heart condition,
and several large-car-trunkloads of potato chips), they very properly returned
to roleplaying, and in character went and asked Elminster,who twinkled at them
and replied, "Aye, odd, isn't it?" No matter what they did (and believe
me, between the err, 'talents' of Torm and the amorous wiles of the then-unhitched
Jhessail and Illistyl, they tried just about EVERYthing) he'd say no more, and
in the end they went off in search of someone who would. Of course, most mages
were too modest in powers to know any real answer (having yet to arrive at a
point where it would matter to them), and those who were mighty enough had utterly
no interest in spilling any beans to a band of freewheeling adventurers. To
make a long story short, the quest for an answer to this little matter became
one of the many ongoing sideshows (that is, adventure generators) to grow more
or less of its own accord in the home Realms campaign. What the Knights of Myth
Drannor eventually discovered is that someone, long ago (perhaps even before
the heights of Netherese magecraft), devised a magical process (involving several
spells and much preparation, somewhat akin to the enchantment processes that
appear in VOLO'S GUIDE TO ALL THINGS MAGICAL) that prevents the loss of vitality
(=Constitution) normally inherent in the creation of a magic item. (This is
in addition to the slightly-better-known-but-contrary-to-the-old-TSR-Code-of-Ethics
evil process wherein one captures a mage, and magically drains his or her life-force
in the making of magic items, thereby escaping any loss of one's own. That in
turn of course involves its OWN careful-because-prone-to-backfire magical process...)
The avoiding-constitution-loss process (which also allows certain stages of
the preparation of identical proto-magic-items to be performed simultaneously,
or in plain English: lets a character work on two or more Wands of Knock at
the same time, though not to complete their crowning enchantments together)
has never appeared in print for game balance and Code reasons, and therefore
remains for every DM to devise (and reveal, bit by little bit, to persistent
adventurers over realtime years of play) for their own campaign. It must involve
treasure hunts for rare and difficult-to-obtain magical ingredients so as to
stop 'magic item factory' characters from appearing in play. There are, of course,
'cheating methods' that involve draining powers or charges from existing magic
items to help infuse new ones with lasting magic,and a reader of SECRETS OF
THE MAGISTER will gain quite a few hints as to who might be able to help with
such things, and even a little bit about how...There are also 'stealing spells'
that harvest spell energies from real or magical lightning bolts, so-called
'spellstorms' (the wild magics that boil up during a wizards' duel or on a battlefield
where many spells clash), and locales where strong magic lurks, such as active
Mythals, MageFairs where contests have been going on, and so on, and transfer
these energies into specific gem crystals and other magically-prepared receptacles,
for later use in the enchanting of magic items, but you won't trick old Ed into
breathing a word about such things, oh no...

Note, too, that with the streamlined and simplified item creation rules in
the 3E Realms, it's not so farfetched to have these numbers of magical items
in the Realms.

9. General
questions about the list

*9.1. Keyword
Introduction

The Realms-L list uses subject line topic keywords. (For those of you on the
ADND-L list, it's exactly the same idea.) This allows you to tailor the Realms
list to *your* interests. Don't like all the gods posts? You can turn them
off! Not interested in reading about books before they're released? You don't
have to!

*9.1.1. What
are the keywords?

ALL: Not really a keyword, this broadcasts the message to everyone on the list.
Reserved for the exclusive use of the moderators of the REALMS list, monitors,
and WotC netsec.

OTHER: Also not really a keyword, messages without keywords (or with improperly-formatted
keywords; see below) go into this group. REALMS-L users are not initially subscribed
to this keyword.

ADMIN: Posts about the list itself, rather than about the Realms. Should NEVER
be crossposted with another keyword.

CUSTOM: for new Realms creations, may be used with other keywords

FAITHS: Messages about the deities and faiths of the Realms.

FLUFF: Original stories and poetry set in the Realms. Also includes discussion
of such stories, and can be used to advertise for sites concerning such things.

HISTORY: discussions of Realms history and timelines, may be used with other
keywords

MAGIC: spells, magic items, the process of using magic itself in the Realms
and other aspects of Realmsian dweomercraft; may be used with other keywords
(note that this includes psionics but not, as a rule, priestly magic specific
to a given faith)

NOVELS: Discussion of the Realms novels and short stories. If you are discussing
a new novel, be sure to include spoiler space (preferably at least 20 lines,
as not everyone sees a message header before they get into the message.) The
NOVELS keyword can be used for discussion of the FR/AD&D comics and for
other things like that; basically, any fiction specifically set in the Forgotten
Realms. Creation and distribution of such material should still be done via
the FLUFF keyword.

PEOPLE: For questions and discussions of: PC's, NPC's, character classes and
races, new and old, and how they relate to the Forgotten Realms campaign setting..

PLACES: Geography of the Realms, from city maps to village taprooms.

REVIEWS: Reviews of new Realms products and novels. Spoilers must still be
clearly indicated and protected with spoiler space, so as not to ruin the product
for people who haven't had a chance to get it yet.

MISC: Any message that does not fit any of the above categories. Should NEVER
be grouped with another keyword, as by definition, if it fits another category,
it isn't MISC.

PROJECTS: This keyword is to be used for discussions concerning: The starting/organizing
of projects to expand information on a variety of things for the Forgotten Realms.
Current examples are the Mage School project, where members contribute new schools/academies
(or expand on briefly mentioned "canon" schools), and (to toot my
own horn briefly) the Realms Temples project, which is attempting to catalog
and list all temples of all faiths currently mentioned in "canon"
materials (in the future, we'll be willing to add custom temples...but that's
some time in the future). This keyword is different from the CUSTOM keyword
in that projects tend to involve many people working together to create a project.
This keyword may be used in conjunction with all keywords.

9.1.2. How
do you use the keywords?

a) Single keywords are at the beginning of the line (leaving in the "Re:"
reply indicator is OK, but NO OTHER reply indicators are acceptable) (leaving
in the [FR] is also OK) followed by a colon.

If you don't want to receive all of these, or you only want to receive one
or two, it's quite easy to select a sublist of the above keywords to get. All
of the following commands must be sent to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM to take
effect.

To add a keyword or keywords: set realms-l topics= +NOVELS +PLACES
To remove a keyword or keywords: set realms-l topics= -REVIEWS -PEOPLE
To add all the keywords: set realms-l topics= +ALL
To change the keywords to a specific list:

set realms-l topics=FAITHS MAGIC ADMIN MISC

These can be mixed and matched as needed. The default setting for REALMS-L
is +ALL -OTHER (all keywords except OTHER).

9.2. Netiquette

9.2.1. Why
isn't this topic OK?

There are two major reasons why the monitors may "suggest" that a
topic should be moved or terminated.

Most common is an off-topic message or thread. The Realms list is for discussion
of gaming in the Forgotten Realms, not for general AD&D or gaming discussion.
If your topic is not specifically related to the Realms, you may want to seek
out a more appropriate venue

The second reason is a topic that has just been hashed to death (within the
last two to three months, at a minimum) or one that, while nominally on-topic,
is likely to prove unproductive and possibly even inflammatory.

You're welcome to make your case off the list to the monitors, but please don't
argue the issue ON the list; that's as bad as perpetuating a closed topic in
the first place. We don't usually ask that a thread be ended, so when we do,
please abide by that decision.

9.2.2. What's
a flame and why is it bad? (Or, This isn't a flame, you moron!)

A "flame" is a message whose primary purpose is not to foster discussion,
but to promote argument, dissension, and ill will. Overt insults are flames,
but there are very subtle messages that also come across as inflammatory.

Everyone has been misread, or has misspoken themselves, and been accused of
flaming. If no hostility was truly meant, you are within your rights to explain
yourself, but the best course of action is often simply to say, "That wasn't
what I meant; I'm sorry it came across that way." If you DID mean to flame,
I hope you have the good grace to apologize.

It should go without saying (but doesn't, so I'm saying it) that neither flames
nor annoyed responses to flames belong on the list. Remember that the height
of good manners frequently consists of not hearing a nasty remark; this is easily
accomplished by swift application of the DELETE key.

9.2.3. Why
can't I post in persona?

This has been a point of contention on the list before, so I'll explain MY
interpretation of the persona guideline. Others may differ.

A person who merely signs his posts with his persona name is fine. Even the
occasional post in character isn't too obnoxious. What gets very old are posts
which are in persona for no good reason, and persona posts where the persona
itself is rather annoying. I certainly understand the appeal of playing your
character, but most list members would prefer to conduct conversations with
another human being, not a figment of your imagination. (You should use the
keyword FLUFF in for any post that's primarily in character, so that the people
who really don't like persona posts can avoid them.)

Using your persona to belittle other characters or other players and their
ideas is, of course, absolutely forbidden. Also forbidden are persona posts
with no other content; this is a discussion list, not a role-playing list per
se.

9.2.4. How
much can I quote?

As little as possible.

Except in VERY rare cases (and VERY short posts), quoting an entire post without
performing some editing is considered extremely rude. It's best to find one
or two sentences, a paragraph at most, to give some context to your reply and
quote only that much. You may, alternatively, elect to summarize another user's
post if there's no part which can easily be extracted. However, if you are unable
to edit quoted text (or unwilling to learn), the monitors respectfully ask that
you refrain from quoting at all.

A good guideline, BTW, is that you should add at least as much text as you
quote.

When quoting, you should be sure to trim the signature and the "To unsubscribe"
footer. You should use some system to ensure that the quoted text and your additions
can be distinguished. Some systems will automatically insert a '>' at the
start of each quoted line. If you have to cut and paste, as AOL and some other
system require, it's traditional to include opening and closing angle brackets
in sets of two or three at the start and end of the quoted text.

Please leave at least one line between the quoted text and your addition, so
that we can determine who said what. Also try to break up long blocks of text
with blank lines; it makes your post much easier to read. If there are several
points in a long post to which you want to respond, don't just have a long piece
of quoted text; reply point-by-point.

9.2.5. What's
wrong with my signature?

It's almost certainly too long. There's something extremely silly about a two-line
message followed by a twelve-line signature file, including a bad ASCII squirrel,
four web pages (two of which are yours and two of which have nudie Star Trek
stars), and three email addresses, one of which you haven't checked since the
Bush administration.

There are legitimate reasons to have a signature that's a little longer than
most, but remember that little pictures, pithy quotes, and excess contact information
(how many people really need your latitude and longitude?) bloat signatures
very quickly. If your signature is too long, in the monitors' judgment, you
may be asked to trim it or refrain from posting with your signature. Around
five lines for a sig file should be the limit.

It also helps if you put a '--' as the first line of the sig file, to set it
off from the rest of your message.

9.2.6. WHAT'S
WRONG WITH WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS?

This is considered very, very bad manners as capitals are considered to be
used as an emphasis. Therefore, according to everyone who is reading your post,
you're "Shouting". I know it sounds silly, but trust me: do not use
capitals and you'll be fine.

9.2.7. What's
up with the "plain text only" rule?

I know your message looks fine on your system, with three different fonts,
five text colors, and full justification of your text. Trust me, it looks like
crap here, and on a lot of other systems. Not every mail program understands
HTML or MS rich text encoding, and on those systems your message will be ooooog-lee.
Worse, every single little formatting tag will show up in its entire text-based
splendor in the digest form of Realms-L.

Stick with plain text for list messages.

.Craig Sefton reports:

If you're using Netscape Messenger for 4.0:

Select "Edit", then the option "Preferences..."

A panel will open with a white window on the left hand side, and some basic
options to apply to your email on the right. In the white window, you can expand
the options with a [+] next to their name. Make sure the option entitled "Mail
and Groups" is expanded i.e. a [-] is next to the name instead of a [+].
Once, expanded, you'll see an option called "Messages". Click on this
once. At the top of the page on the right, you'll see an option entitled: By
default send HTML messages. Make sure the checkbox next to it is blank (i.e.
not selected). At the bottom is another option entitled [More Options]. Click
this button and in the new panel that opens, make sure the option "Always
convert the message into plain text" is checked (located about halfway
down the screen.

Click okay until you close all the panels. That should be it :)

Craig Sefton again:

This is for Outlook Express for IExplorer v4.0 on Win 95

Okay, as far as I know to turn off all MIME, HTML etc. etc. stuff do the following:

In Outlook select the "Tools" option.
In the menu bar, select "Options.
In the panel that appears, along the top should be a button labeled

"Send". Select this.

The panel should look something like this:

-Mail Sending Format-
o HTML [Settings]
o Plain Text [Settings]

-News Sending Format-
o HTML [Settings]
o Plain Text [Settings]

[] Save copy of sent messages in the 'Sent Items' folder
[] Include message in reply
[] Send messages immediately
[] Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent
[] Automatically complete e-mail addresses when composing

Make sure, under the heading "Mail Sending Format", that the 'Plain
Text' option is checked.

Also, it's probably a good idea to uncheck the option near the bottom labeled
'Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent' so that you don't
use a mime format that someone else may have sent to the list.

NEXT STEP

Next to the 'Plain Text' option under "Mail Sending Format", click
on the button labeled "Settings".

You will see a panel open up with the heading "Message Format" and
two basic options of MIME and Uuencode. Select the MIME option. Next to that
should be a small drop down menu labeled "Encode Text Using" with
3 options in the drop down: None, Quoted Printable, and Base 64.

Select "None." And click Okay all the way back through to your email
program.

Okay, I figured out how to turn off HTML/MS-Rich Text in MS Outlook 98

1) Click on the Tools option in the menu bar.
2) Click on 'Options'.
3) In the window that appears there should be a selection "Mail Sending
Format" near the top. Select this.
4) You'll be able to specify 'Plain Text' here from a drop down box.
5) Right next to where you select 'Plain Text', there should be an option 'Settings...'
6) Clicking on 'Settings' will produce another panel where you can select MIME
format (make sure this is selected) and, in the drop down box next to it, you'll
be able to select what MIME Type you need. In this case, select 'None'.

If your email program supports word wrap, you should hit return only at the
ends of paragraphs, just as if you were using a word processor. (It's a good
idea, if the wrap margin can be changed, to set it at about 70 characters.)
Conversely, if your software does NOT support word wrap, it's a good idea to
use a monospaced font, and get a good feel for where the 70-character boundary
is so your lines don't get too long.

9.3. Generosity
and the list

9.3.1. How
should I offer a file? How should I respond to an offer?

Often. With thanks.

In more detail: The proper way to offer a file on the list is NOT to just send
it to everyone, unless it's of a reasonable length AND you can include it as
text directly in your message. (Even then, it's courteous to say, "I'll
be posting 'The Ecology of the Tribble' tomorrow; it's rather long, so be prepared."
If you can break your post into parts, that's often the best thing.)

Rather, with long posts and/or posts that can't be included as simple text,
you should offer them to anyone who sends you private email. That way, you don't
flood the email boxes of people who don't want or can't handle the file, and
you get the information directly to the people who want it. You can also find
a willing webmaster (or write your own page--you know you want to, everybody's
doing it) and just post the URL with a brief note about what's there. Always,
when offering a file, include your email address in the body of the message;
not every reader shows your email address as the "from" address.

NOTE: There is an alternative. If your document is in .PDF or Windows .doc
format, you can email it to Craig Sefton, to be made available for download
from the Best of FR-L Web Site. His email address is <craig@tradepage.co.za>.
He will NOT accept any text files unless they are in the above formats.

When someone makes such an offer to the list, and you're interested, do NOT
reply directly to the list. We don't want to know. Instead, send email directly
to the offerer. If you don't know the email address, you can get the list archives
and look for it there, or you can email someone else and ask.

If you miss the original offer, and someone else posts that they're interested
in the file (or that they've received it and it's really cool), you can email
that person and ask them to forward it to you. As a last resort, send a VERY
SHORT message to the list, saying "I was interested in that Tribble file
but I lost the address of the person offering it. Could you email me, please?"

9.3.2. Why
are attached files such bad things? I get/send them all the time, and I never
have problems.

Great! Some people, however, do.

Our members who are on digest mode can't receive attached files properly; it
shows up as a whole mess of gobbledygook following your email message. Some
other users who get the regular list can't handle attachments either.

Apart from that, though, sending a long file to people who haven't requested
it and may not be interested is just rude. There's no point in sending a Word
97 document to a user who only uses Word Perfect 2.1, and there's even less
point sending a file on "Fungal Growths of the Realms" to someone
who couldn't care less.

9.4. Copyright
and the list.

Now, despite the encouragement and support the previous section, there is one
kind of sharing we do NOT encourage: that of sharing copyrighted materials.
This means, basically, anyone soliciting or offering scans of modules, sourcebooks,
or any other such materials, will be placed on REVIEW status, and the appropriate
people notified.

9.4.1. What's
a "me too"?

It's a message posted to the list that says, "Send me a copy, too!"
Don't do this. Send a private message to the original poster or to the *first*
person who posted to the list asking for a copy. Serves him right for not following
the rules. :-)

One really annoying practice is the "Me Too" practice on a request
for something that doesn't even exist.

Example:

Poster #1: "Does anyone have an extensive document detailing Drizzt's
choice of footwear during his pre-teen years?"
Poster #2: "I'd love to see that too!"
Poster #3: "Me three!"
Poster #4: "So where do I get the Drizzt footwear article that everyone
is talking about?"

(More generally, it's *any* short message expressing agreement or praise without
any other content. These should be sent privately.)

9.4.2. Why
doesn't anyone ever comment on my posts?

First, check to see if you committed one of the Deadly Sins such as *gasp*
over quoting. I know that a LOT of people refuse to read such posts and simply
delete them. I know from experience because I used to do this too. Another problem
is that you failed to use a subject keyword, and thus very few people were able
to read your post. Otherwise, damned if I know. I get this complaint a lot,
though, so it's a widespread problem.

Folks, if you read something you like, drop the poster a line and say so--you'll
make her day! If you have some criticism, send it along--maybe there's an issue
you hadn't considered, or maybe there's an issue SHE hadn't considered. Often
good ideas can spark a message thread on the list--but equally often, good ideas
sink without a trace. That's not very nice.

Posters of good ideas, however, should be aware that sometimes we can't read
long messages right away. A little patience is desirable. And please don't try
to get comments by insulting your readers, as at least one person has recently
done. That's likely to backfire.

Many other abbreviations are clear from context. If you don't know, ask!

9.5.2. What does "canon"
mean?

Tom Rinschler explained:

When mentioned in this list, "canon" refers to information that is
in official products released by TSR (previously) and WotC (now), and only such
information. The opposite of "canon" is "custom", information
that individual players have made up for their own or others' use. That Elminster
is a 29th level mage living in a tower in Shadowdale is "canon". That
he likes to wear the Symbul's underwear would definitely be "custom"
information. :-)

Jenn Millington added:

Canon references things which have been written and are considered OFFICIAL
FR references. Such as modules, accessories, novels (although the last is dubious
in many people's eyes *G*)

9.5.3. So, are novels canon or aren't
they?

Jim Butler gives the official (or canon) answer ;)

Everything that bears the Forgotten Realms logo is considered canon. Where
two sources contradict one another, a decision needs to be made as to which
one should be followed. For game products, that would mean you'd follow a game
product over a novel. Later products have precedence over older products.

9.5.4. What's a spoiler?

Chris Garner replied:

Spoiler: This is information from a novel/module/accessory that you may or
may not want to know. For example, you probably don't want to know how Greenwood's
latest novel ends if you haven't read it yet. It's a courtesy that all considerate
posters use when discussing new material. Notice I said 'considerate'.

Jenn Millington added:

A spoiler warning is used to indicate that you are going to reference something
(normally out of a novel) which could ruin the plot for other people. So for
instance if you were going to talk about a new book (completely fictional, guys)
where Elminster dies suddenly, you'd write "spoiler" and leave about
16 lines so people don't accidentally read this and get mad at you. Those of
us who take spoilers very seriously, normally have a supply of boiling oil on
hand for torture sessions *G*

9.5.5. What's
wrong with saying "T$R"?

When TSR was cracking down on web sites in violation of their online policy,
some people starting using "T$R" as a way of protesting their supposed
money-grubbing ways. It's considered VERY rude by every TSR staffer I've spoken
to, and at least one has said he refuses to answer any email or Usenet post
containing the offending term.

Some people have said they mean the $ to represent the dragon in the TSR shield.
We consider that an extremely weak story.

9.5.6. What's
a munchkin?

It's a little guy who sings "Follow the Yellow Brick Road".

It's also a derogatory term for the type of gamers also known as min/maxers
or, sometimes, powergamers. Munchkins tend toward the "Monty Haul"
style of gaming, wanting lots of magic items, lots of treasure, and lots of
everything else except danger to their PCs. Many of the Knights of the Dinner
Table are munchkins.

Min/maxers are slightly different; they figure our how to tweak the system
to get the maximal benefit for their characters. Powergamers may be either
of these types, or may simply be gamers who enjoy playing more powerful characters.
It's a fine distinction; just to be safe, avoid all three terms until you're
more comfortable with the nuances.

9.5.7. How
can I post a review to the list?

Easily. Just send a message to the list; you should title it with the keyword
REVIEW, ex: "Review: Empires of the Shining Sea". If you plan on referencing
DM-only aspects of the product, you should put the word "SPOILERS"
in the subject line, warn about spoilers again in the first line, and leave
at least fifteen lines of blank space before you actually start the review.

Remember that the best reviews give specific information about what was and
wasn't done properly, not just a general impression. A review which only says
"Ruins of Waterdeep was the best thing since D&D was created!"
or "Ruins of Waterdeep should be recycled for toilet paper", while
evocative, isn't very helpful to the reader who wants to know what, precisely,
you liked or didn't like about the product.

*9.6. How
many users are there, anyway?

As of the last time I checked, we have 1220 subscribers. They represent most
of the major three-letter superdomains (com,edu,net,gov,org,mil) and the following
country codes (and please correct and complete this list by emailing me privately):

[In any case, although the official language for the FR list is English, there
are a LOT of non-native English speakers on this list. Please be forgiving of
any odd phrasings, spelling, punctuation, or just plain old typos.]

The monitors act with the full support and sanction of the moderator at all
times.

9.8. LISTSERV
commands

9.8.1. How
do I switch to/from digest mode?

The digest form of Realms-L collects messages every so often into one big text
file and distributes just that one big file to the people who have turned on
"digest mode" in their list options. To turn this on or off, send
one of the following commands to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM:

This ends up sending you a large message much like the Digest, with one major
difference. You can choose which message you want to receive, based on sender
and subject line. This allows you to get only the threads you want to read,
in the order they were sent, and without other, "boring" threads between.

9.8.3. Can I switch my list subscription
to a new email account?

Yep. Use:

CHANGE realms-l newemail.address

This will switch it from the address it's currently receiving it at to the
new address, once the new address is confirmed as active. It's pretty neat.

Just as a little side note and clarification, this command needs to be sent
from the original email address and not from the one which you want to change
to.

Among other things, it contains a large archive of Dragon and Dungeon articles,
many freebies of interest to gamers, chat rooms and message boards, and a product
schedule. It also has a complete list of all products EVER released.

Definitely bookmark all of these pages; they're worth frequent visits.

10.1.2. How can I keep up with the
changes at the Wizards web site?

Jim Butler answers:

If you're interested in seeing a run-down on the changes on the website, as
well as other updates, subscribe to the WIZINFO mailing list by sending a message
to listserv@oracle.wizards.com
with the words "subscribe wizinfo-L <your name>" in the body
of the message.

It's a fairly good site put together by Jason Redfern (webmaster@candlekeep.com).
It contains the content formerly available at the forgotten realms zone maintained
by Mark Oliva.

*10.2.3. What
else is out there (mailing lists)?

Wizards of the Coast, Inc. supports Internet mailing lists for many of its
products. To subscribe to any of the lists below, send an email request to listserv@oracle.wizards.com.
Your request should follow this format:

SUBSCRIBE [list name] [your real name]

Be sure your message doesn't contain a signature or other non-command
data.

There's also a non-Wizards of the Coast AD&D mailing list; send email
to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU
with the command "subscribe adnd-l [Your Name]", reply quickly to
the verification message, and then read the document you get VERY closely.

I've used it with good success both as a list member and list creator. Poke
around, and you might find some lists to your tastes.

For the brave at heart, there are at least two relevant Usenet newsgroups:
rec.games.frp.dnd and rec.games.frp.misc; if you aren't familiar with news,
ask your Internet provider to help you set it up. WARNING: The newsgroups have
much higher volume than this list, and they don't have monitors to keep them
on-topic; some judicious pruning is advised.

10.2.4. What happened to the Realms-Projects
list?

It merged back into the main list. See the discussion of the Projects keyword.

First bet: Canvass the local gaming stores, and ASK; many times they have a
couple of things in the back that never sold, but that they haven't gotten around
to returning. In addition, many will have used game products for sale. (I picked
up two classic AD&D modules for $3 apiece this way.)

Second bet: Hit the used bookstores. Often they'll have a role-playing game
section, and patient thumbing-through can reap any manner of rewards.

Third bet: There are several online merchants who specialize in used products.

Last bet: If everything else fails, advertise. A single post on the Realms
list, simply stating what you're looking for, is OK (request that all replies
go directly to you, please!). You might have luck posting a message in the
newsgroup rec.games.frp.marketplace, too.

10.2.8. Where
can I download the Espruar/Dethek/Thorass/Common Tongue fonts?

The Espruar and Dethek fonts can be obtained from ftp://ftp.mpgn.com . The
file is called fantasy.zip and is located in the /Gaming/Fonts directory. The
Thorass font was made by Catherine Keene and can be downloaded from her King's
Tears Site at: